{"id":394156,"date":"2026-01-06T20:02:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T20:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/394156\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T20:02:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T20:02:20","slug":"marchand-blasts-maple-leafs-fans-says-he-almost-signed-in-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/394156\/","title":{"rendered":"Marchand Blasts Maple Leafs Fans, Says He Almost Signed in Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/marchbr03.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=nhltradetalk.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-06_hr\">Brad Marchand<\/a> gave Toronto fans plenty to chew on Tuesday. While confirming that he nearly signed with the Maple Leafs, he then stabbed the fan base and twisted the knife, suggesting he was happy to avoid the drama and anti-<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/marnemi01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=nhltradetalk.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-06_hr\">Mitch Marner<\/a> fans who ran the former Leafs\u2019 superstar out of town. <\/p>\n<p>Ahead of the Florida Panthers\u2019 visit to face the Maple Leafs, Marchand revealed he came far closer to signing in Toronto than most fans ever realized. According to the veteran forward, his free agency decision last summer <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/reporterchris\/status\/2008588002873012502?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">came down to just two teams<\/a>: Florida and Toronto.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was between Florida and Toronto where I was going to go,\u201d Marchand said, admitting he didn\u2019t believe re-signing with the Panthers would be possible because of their cap situation. In the end, Florida made it work, locking him up on a six-year deal worth $5.25 million per season.<\/p>\n<p>That alone would\u2019ve been headline-worthy. Marchand wasn\u2019t done.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Brad-Marchand-Maple-Leafs.jpg\" alt=\"Brad Marchand Maple Leafs\" class=\"wp-image-101075\"  \/>Brad Marchand Maple Leafs<\/p>\n<p>Asked about the Leafs\u2019 current direction, he pointed directly at the fan base \u2014 and Mitch Marner\u2019s departure \u2014 as a major reason for Toronto\u2019s struggles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate the fans ran Marner out of town,\u201d Marchand said. \u201cThat\u2019s a huge impact on their group. He\u2019s a point-per-game player. That hurts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Did Marchand Have Anything Nice to Say About the Maple Leafs?<\/p>\n<p>Marchand did add that Toronto \u201cplays the right way now\u201d compared to past versions of the team, but the message was clear: losing Marner left a void that isn\u2019t easily replaced. That he\u2019s not with the club today and remains with the Panthers is probably a huge relief. It sounds like he feels he avoided making a pretty big mistake. <\/p>\n<p>Marchand has made a career out of irritating Toronto, and even in a Panthers jersey \u2014 fresh off a Stanley Cup \u2014 he hasn\u2019t lost his touch.<\/p>\n<p>Toronto almost signed its longtime antagonist. Instead, it got another reminder of what walked out the door \u2014 and who never walked in.<\/p>\n<p>Next: <a href=\"https:\/\/nhltradetalk.com\/maple-leafs-are-playing-better-but-not-enough\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Maple Leafs Are Playing Better \u2014 But Standings Tell Different Story<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/NHLTradeTalkweblogo4.png\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brad Marchand gave Toronto fans plenty to chew on Tuesday. While confirming that he nearly signed with the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[254,5,533,4,2175],"class_list":{"0":"post-394156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-brad-marchand","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-mitch-marner","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-top-story"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115849943466112835","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}