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TORONTO — As the clock struck zero on another Toronto Maple Leafs season, it immediately began ticking on Mitch Marner’s remaining days with the organization.
Barring an unexpected change of heart, Marner is now a hair over six weeks away from becoming the NHL’s highest-profile free agent since before the pandemic.
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The 28-year-old winger signaled his intentions during a 102-point season where he put off every overture from his boyhood team to engage in negotiations on a contract extension. He then batted away management’s attempt to trade him to the Carolina Hurricanes ahead of the March 7 deadline by refusing to waive his no-movement clause, saying only that he wanted to focus on hockey and finish out the season as strongly as possible.
And on Sunday night when a second-round series with the Florida Panthers ended in misery for the Maple Leafs, with fans throwing jerseys and beer on the Scotiabank Arena ice amid a 6-1 defeat in Game 7, Marner had a reflective tone when addressing his 10-year run in Toronto.
“It meant everything,” he said. “(They) took maybe a risky pick on a small kid from Toronto and I’ve been forever grateful to be able to wear this Maple Leaf, and be a part of some of the great legends here and be able to wear this jersey.
“So never taken a day for granted, and I always loved it.”
Marner far exceeded every expectation that accompanied his fourth overall selection in the 2015 draft. He was a big driver of the organization’s rise from the ashes alongside Auston Matthews and William Nylander, and already sits fifth on the franchise’s all-time scoring list with 741 points — trailing only Hall of Famers Mats Sundin (987), Darryl Sittler (916), Dave Keon (858) and Börje Salming (768).
But Marner also played a big role in the postseason disappointments, too, and he shouldered a disproportionate amount of the blame as the Leafs repeatedly came up short each spring while amassing a 2-9 record in playoff series.
That explains in part why he’s so enticed by the allure of the July 1 free-agent market, according to league sources. Becoming a star for his hometown team in the world’s biggest hockey market hasn’t always been a fairytale for Marner — far from it.
Marner hinted at that strain during this series with the Panthers, where he and the team’s other foundational players again faced heavy criticism for failing to produce enough offense to get the Leafs to their first Eastern Conference final in 23 years.
Marner was asked what he does to move past an emotional loss following Toronto’s 6-1 home defeat in Game 5, and replied: “Go home and now hang out with my son and hang out with my dog. They don’t have a clue what’s going on in this world. Just cuddle in the sun. That’s really what matters in life.”
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Marner and his wife, Stephanie, became first-time parents on May 4 when son Miles was born between the end of Round 1 and start of Round 2.
No wonder there’s a feeling of new beginnings in the air.
There’s also a strong business pull for Marner ahead of a summer in which the NHL’s salary cap is taking its most meaningful jump in a decade to $95.5 million. That will leave virtually every team with excess money to spend and not enough high-quality players to spend it on. Assuming Marner hits the open market, as expected, he would be the most attractive UFA in the sport since Artemi Panarin in 2019 or John Tavares in 2018.
While his reputation in Toronto may have taken some hits over the years — generating 1.33 shots per game against the Ottawa Senators in Round 1 this spring and 1.14 against the Panthers in Round 2, the lowest playoff outputs of his career, won’t help things — he is viewed almost exclusively through the lens of his superstar talents elsewhere.
Marner saw top-line duty with Team Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February and had two massive overtime moments there, scoring the winner against Sweden before making a slick play to find Connor McDavid for the championship clincher against Team USA.
During that tournament, head coach Jon Cooper raved about the things he believes set Marner apart.
“When you’re that size you have to have something,” Cooper said. “You have to be unique at something. You have to be better than everybody else at something. He’s not the fastest kid on the ice, he doesn’t have the hardest shot on the ice, he doesn’t do a whole bunch of things that a lot of guys out there on both teams do better than him. But it’s really hard to sit here and say, ‘was there a better player?’ He puts himself at that elite level.
“The way he thinks the game, the way he processes the game at such a high level and such a high rate of speed, that’s why he’s the player he is.”
The Leafs, of course, have valued these things in Marner as well.
Management unapologetically caved during its last negotiation with his camp in September 2019, justifying the six-year, $65.41 million deal it gave Marner after he missed the opening day of training camp that year by saying that it couldn’t risk a protracted absence like the season before with Nylander.
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In retrospect, that negotiation marked a shift in the way Marner was received in his hometown. He told reporters he had a kid screaming at him about his lack of a contract that summer while out walking his dog and bristled at the way his dad was brought into the public conversations on the topic.
While Marner continued to deliver high-level performances for the Leafs in the regular season, he received increasingly pointed criticism when his offensive game abandoned him in the playoffs. Some of it was justified. But it also veered to extremes that included low-level harassment for him and the people he cares about.
That brings us to now, with the opportunity to become an unrestricted free agent directly in front of him. Marner’s agent, Darren Ferris, is fond of taking his clients to the open market because of how unique and lucrative those opportunities can be in a league where the vast majority of star players typically opt to sign early extensions.
Whereas in the past it was always up to Leafs management to decide whether it wanted to keep rolling with the Core Four — and it always did — the choice will likely be made for them this year by Marner.
He’s an incredibly popular player in the dressing room — “He’s like a brother to me,” Matthews said Sunday — and it’s unclear if there’s anything the organization can do to entice him to stay.
That will all be sorted out soon.
In another Game 7 loss, and perhaps in his final game with the Leafs, Marner found himself the target of boos by the home crowd whenever he touched the puck in the third period. It’s telling that he didn’t even receive a shift in the final three minutes of the game.
“Sadness,” he said, when asked what emotions he was feeling after the loss. “Obviously depression. Yeah, I don’t know, all of it.”
This too shall pass.
A new day dawns.
(Top photo: Claus Andersen / Getty Images)
Chris Johnston is a senior writer covering the NHL for The Athletic. He has two decades of experience as an NHL Insider, having appeared on Hockey Night in Canada and the NHL Network before joining TSN in 2021. He currently hosts the “Chris Johnston Show” on the Steve Dangle Podcast Network. He’s written previously for the Toronto Star, Sportsnet and The Canadian Press. Follow Chris on Twitter @reporterchris
