Why the Golden Knights are a better fit for Mitch Marner than the Leafs ever were
RALEIGH – Everything is the same for Mitch Marner, and everything is different. It’s a matter of perspective.
Off the ice: Marner is Marner, the same energetic young man who was the engine of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ dressing room for most of his first nine NHL seasons. He was the dressing room DJ, the cheerleader and, if you listened closely a year ago, every last teammate reiterated how much they loved him whenever the possibility of his departure came up. In the Leafs’ first season without him since 2015-16, their dressing room chemistry wasn’t the same.
And that version of Marner, the peppy team hype man, showed up by pretty much his first practice as a Vegas Golden Knight this past September. He didn’t ease himself in.
“I think [I was outgoing] right away, to be honest,” Marner told Daily Faceoff Monday afternoon at Stanley Cup Final Media Day, roughly 30 hours before the puck dropped on Game 1 vs. the Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center. “I’m a pretty outspoken guy, I bring a lot of energy, I like to have fun. I like to try to get to know my teammates as quick as possible. So early on I got pretty acquainted with the group. I saw that everyone is a vocal guy in our locker room, jumped right into it.”
“I felt like he was very comfortable from day one,” Golden Knights captain Mark Stone told Daily Faceoff Monday. “I think we built something here that people want to be a part of. The reason people want to be a part of it is you can come in and be yourself. Obviously, if you’re not a good guy, guys are gonna put you in your place, but that’s not Mitch, which is a great guy. He has a lot of energy. He still has a lot of youthful energy, which is, you know, kudos to him, right? He’s been able to keep himself in incredible shape. [It’s] contagious to our locker room.”
Not that Marner’s persona came as a surprise. On the contrary: despite the fact he was a lightning rod for criticism among fans and media during his tenure with the Leafs, that was never the case among the player population, and the Golden Knights had heard nothing but glowing things about him.
“I always had such a tremendous respect for Mitch as a player, playing against him in Buffalo, when he was in Toronto, playing against him in different international events, watching him as a fan from afar of hockey,” Golden Knights superstar center Jack Eichel told Daily Facoeff. “I’ve always thought the world of him as a player. I have a few friends and close people in my life who have played with him, and they all speak so highly of him as a person, his character, how he is in the locker room, how he interacts with people. So I always had Mitch in a really high regard and thought super highly of him. And this year getting to know him now, obviously getting really close with him throughout the season, he’s just solidified all my thoughts on him. I have an incredible appreciation for the way he plays the game and some of the things he can do on the ice as well as the person he is and what he’s meant to our team off the ice. So he’s been incredible for us all season, and it’s been a lot of fun getting to know him and spend time with him as well.”
That’s the off-ice Marner, same as he ever was.
On the ice, though? His experience has felt unrecognizable.
If you’re a long-suffering Leafs fan, the pain of the 2025-26 Stanley Cup playoffs has obviously been the experience of watching Marner dominate like never before. His leads all players with 21 points. He’s remained his excellent 200-foot self, grading out as a 98th-percentile offensive player and a 91st-percentile defensive player. Under-the-hood, his play-driving metrics haven’t been markedly different than what they were when he was a Leaf, but the results have been, largely because he has so much more help. Any team that boasts 2022-23 Stanley Cup holdovers like Eichel and Stone in the forward corps, with an ability to sprinkle multiple-time 30-goal scorers Tomas Hertl and Pavel Dorofeyev into the top nine, makes for a luxurious upgrade in supporting cast for Marner.
“I think the change has helped him. But I think our team is deeper and a better team than what he had played on in Toronto,” said Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon. “Not that Toronto didn’t have really good teams, but you have to have that depth through your roster, because to go through the three rounds, or ultimately four rounds, everybody’s got to take their turn. So there’s going to be a time where somebody else’s line steps up. Carolina, some of the players on their team that have stepped up, our team is the very same. Mitch is playing with tremendous confidence. There’s probably eight or nine guys on our team that have never been to a Final before, and he’s really savoring the moment.”
With so many playoff-proven teammates capable of finishing their chances, the effect is twofold. For one, it takes the pressure off Marner, who was known for wilting in high-stakes situations as a Leaf, his points-per-game in those nine years dropping from 1.13 in the regular season to 0.90 in the playoffs in Games 1-4 of a series to 0.41 in Games 5-7. Secondly, the reliable Vegas team around him also makes him play looser and seems to have unlocked his own scoring and creativity in the postseason for a change.
“I’m getting put in situations where I think I’m getting the puck in good areas, I’m scoring when I get opportunities,” Marner said. “I think at the same time, when I’ve put people in good areas, they’ve been scoring as well. There’s just a trust in one another in different situations in different areas that they’ve got to make a play, and they do it.”
“He’s not trying to be something he’s not, and he’s not trying to change anything, he’s been a perfect fit for us,” Stone said. “We’ve added a guy who probably we have never had in this organization with that type of creativity, but it doesn’t change the way you play. He’s still a 200-foot player, still one of our best penalty killers, and I think that’s basically why they brought him in, to add that type of creativity to a lineup.”
We can surmise that Marner never had the mental fortitude to survive in Toronto. But as Stone responded Monday to the idea that the market was too tough on him: “I don’t know, and I don’t really care. He’s with us know, and I’m really happy he’s with us.” So perhaps the better way to spin Marner’s journey is: maybe he was never supposed to win in Toronto. Maybe, to send his career to its highest peak yet, he needed to land in exactly this situation. He and the Golden Knights made for the ideal whirlwind Vegas wedding on that fateful day last June when they executed a sign-and-trade with the Leafs. And he couldn’t feel better about it today.
“I’m not a guy that lives in the past. I think I’ve spoken about that a lot,” he said. “I’m present here in the moment. And I’m extremely excited to get going.”
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