‘It’s gonna be fun playing against him’: Leafs’ Matthews on matchup against Marner
Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner may still be good friends, even after the winger’s departure from the Toronto Maple Leafs last summer, but that doesn’t mean Matthews won’t enjoy playing against him.
The two players were good friends during Marner’s nine-season tenure with the Leafs alongside Matthews. The Leafs are set to play the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday, the first time they’ll face Marner since he left Toronto last summer. While Matthews and Marner aren’t quite as close, they’ve maintained their friendship on opposite sides of the continent, even if we won’t see that on the ice.
Auston Matthews on Mitch Marner:
“We definitely keep in touch a pretty decent amount… he’s always going to be a really close friend, he’s a great person… it’s gonna be fun playing against him”
“We definitely keep in touch a pretty decent amount,” said Matthews during the Leafs morning skate ahead of Thursday’s game. “He’s always going to be a really close friend, he’s a great person.
“It’s gonna be fun playing against him.”
Last season saw plenty of conversation surrounding Marner and the final year of his contract, and whether or not he’d return. After another unsuccessful outing in the playoffs for both Marner and the Leafs, the winger opted to depart from the team in free agency. While he never actually made it to free agency, the Leafs and Golden Knights agreed to a sign-and-trade to get the eighth year on his contract at a $12 million cap hit, with Vegas sending Nicolas Roy to the Leafs in exchange to free up cap space.
Both Matthews and Marner haven’t had ideal seasons in their first away from each other, as both have seen their production perform below their usual rates. Marner has 11 goals and 36 assists for 47 points in 45 games, with his 1.04 points per game being his lowest rate since his sophomore season, although he has had to adjust to playing center full-time recently for the first time in his career. Meanwhile, Matthews started the season on a really slow note, but has picked up the pace in recent weeks, giving him 22 goals and 15 assists for 37 points in 40 games.
While this will be the first time Matthews and Marner have played against each other in an NHL game, they have done so in international games, most notably last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off tournament. Matthews and the United States won the round-robin game 3-1, Marner and Canada got the last laugh, winning the tournament with a 3-2 overtime victory which saw Marner assist on the overtime winner, while Matthews was noted for his poor defensive coverage on the play. With both players on their respective country’s Olympic rosters, they’ll be set to do so again next month in Milan if the two countries cross paths.
Matthews and Marner also crossed paths in other international events before making the NHL, including the 2014 World U-17 Hockey Challenge, where Matthews’ US team beat Marner’s Canada Ontario team 6-2 in a round-robin game, and the 2016 World Junior Championship, where Matthews’ US team beat Marner and the Canadians 4-2 in a round-robin game.