On January 23, 2026, Markham’s homegrown hero, Mitch Marner, returned and played at Scotiabank arena for the first time in 250 days. Unlike the previous 331 games, he was part of the visiting team for the first time.
As he stepped out on the ice for warmups, he was showered with the most intense boos of his career to that point. For such a highly-anticipated return, Marner’s production and general impact could be considered disappointing, with just 1 shot and no points to show for his efforts. The Vegas Golden Knights, as they had done eight days prior, scored six goals and controlled the game from start to finish. The game itself may have underwhelmed, but Toronto Maple Leafs fans’ reactions to their old face of the franchise and the franchise’s sixth leading all-time point scorer did not. Throughout the night, he would be hailed with boo birds each time he touched the puck. Before the game had even begun, a fan had even hung a jersey with “sellout” on the name plate with Marner’s number right in front of the Golden Knights.
But what went into the animosity… besides the immediate sense of betrayal when Marner deserted his hometown team to join arguably the most hated franchise in the NHL, the boos encapsulated many other strong emotions and memories from the Mitch Marner era.
Almost exactly one decade before his departure, the Maple Leafs made Mitch Marner just the seventh prospect picked in the top four in franchise history, when then-Director of Personnel Mark Hunter made Marner the fourth overall pick in the 2015 NHL draft.
Before he had even entered the organization, he had already become an extremely polarizing topic in Toronto.
Born on May 5, 1997 in Markham, Ontario, Marner was born into Maple Leafs fandom and fans were beginning to love him back. He first began making a name for himself in Ontario with the Don Mills Flyers U16 AAA team but exploded into the top 10 of most NHL draft boards with his 126 point season with the perennial powerhouse London Knights in the OHL.
When it was announced the Maple Leafs would be picking fourth overall, many assumed that the two ‘generational talents’ (Connor McDavid of the Erie Otters and Jack Eichel of the Boston University Terriers) would be picked first and whoever the Arizona Coyotes did not pick third overall, between Marner and McDavid’s teammate Dylan Strome, would be the Maple Leafs choice at fourth. However, newly named Head Coach Mike Babcock, arriving with a fresh $50 million contract and a Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings, had a vastly differing opinion.
It has been widely reported, including by both Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman, that Babcock was greatly against drafting Marner and preferred to build the Maple Leafs core from the blueline first. While media outlets debated whether the Leafs would pick Noah Hanifin (who would go fifth overall to the Carolina Hurricanes before now becoming Marner’s teammate in Vegas). Recently, it has come out that Babcock was instead lobbying for Ivan Provorov, who would go seventh to the Philadelphia Flyers.
This would not be the last time Marner became a subject of controversy for Babcock.
Marner would have a spectacular 2015-16 season with the Knights, bringing Maple Leafs fans intrigue and excitement over the new heights he could take the franchise to. He paired with Christian Dvorak and Matthew Tkachuk to form the most dominant line in CHL history. Along with his 116 points, he contributed 44 points in the postseason in just 18 games to lead London to an OHL championship with ease. He would also add 14 points in just four memorial cup games, including an assist on the game tying goal in the final game with less than five minutes and the Knights down 2-1. Alongside his video game production, he amassed a full resume’s worth of accolades in that one season, including: CHL Memorial Cup MVP, CHL player of the year, OHL most outstanding player, OHL playoff MVP.
Toronto desperately needed a prospect like Marner to rejuvenate the franchise. They finished dead last in the 2016 NHL season in their first season after trading star winger Phil Kessel. (Presumably, Marner was to fill Kessel’s role on the team once he joined the team). The Maple Leafs’ struggles that season, however, would lead to them picking Auston Matthews first overall that June, starting this current era of Toronto Maple Leafs hockey.
For all the anguish the end of the Marner era would bring, it even more successfully than even the biggest Leafs optimists could have hoped. Marner broke the franchise’s rookie assists record with 42, contributed 61 points overall, and helped Matthews score 40 goals as a rookie. The Maple Leafs completed a historic turnaround, making the playoffs and pushing the president’s trophy-winning Washington Capitals through a hard six game series in which they took a 2-1 series lead and needed multiple overtimes to be defeated.
During that rookie season however, it would later be revealed that Babcock had forced Marner to rank teammates by their work ethic. An uncomfortable Marner placed himself last but put centers Nazem Kadri and Tyler Bozak next to last on the list, almost by default. Babcock later shared the list with both Kadri and Bozak.
The next season, 2017-18, was arguably the most promising of this iteration of Maple Leafs hockey. Toronto set a then franchise record for wins (49) and points (105) and pushed the Boston Bruins to seven games after being down 3-1 in the series, even taking a lead in the third period of game seven. Marner personally increased his output to 69 points and contributed nine points in seven games, giving Maple Leafs fans the illusion that he would be a consistent playoff performer.
The summer of 2018 was the first crack in Marner’s relationship with Toronto management.
First, when his entry-level contract promised full signing bonuses he never received. While many attribute this to then-GM Lou Lamoriello, it was clear that Lamoriello’s silent firing in the summer of 2018 was not enough to appease Marner’s camp.
This became an issue because this summer was also the beginning of the negotiations for his extension. Star teammate William Nylander’s entry-level deal also expired this summer, and he would not sign until December 1 2018, just hours before he would have become ineligible that season.
Somehow, none of these developments were even close to the biggest news out of Toronto that summer. The Maple Leafs signed superstar center John Tavares away from the New York Islanders on a seven year, $77 million deal that many considered to be the most impactful free agency signing of all time (today many argue that it was Artemi Panarin signing with the Rangers the next summer or even Marner himself signing with Vegas this past summer). His signing brought promise of a dynasty to a franchise that had not seen a Stanley Cup in the color television era. In reality, his lucrative contract handcuffed Maple Leafs management in future negotiations with their younger stars once they negotiated extensions and also forced them to shed depth immediately (such as letting Bozak sign with the Blues).
For Marner specifically, Tavares represented a major upgrade from Nazem Kadri, who was demoted to the third line. In November, the Maple Leafs agreed to extend Matthews for over $11 million annually until 2024. Many inside Marner’s camp felt he was a more talented player than Matthews and deserved more. The fact Matthews previously received the same entry-level bonuses Marner was denied was a driving factor of the rift and discord that would soon develop between Marner’s camp and Maple Leafs management.
To Marner’s credit, he vastly outperformed Matthews that season. Where the star center only had 73 points, Marner produced 94 and helped John Tavares score 47 goals. Then came the postseason.
The following excerpt comes from Friedman’s reporting:
One thing became very clear: if someone praised him for something he did well, Marner would be incredibly thankful — especially if it wasn’t obvious. There would be small plays or moments many of us might not notice, but he thought they were important. It meant a lot to him that someone would say something. He’d light up. He wanted to matter, to feel he made a difference.
One Leaf remembered Game 1 of the 2019 first-round series against Boston, where Marner scored twice, including a short-handed penalty shot, and was the best player overall. Teammate after teammate found him post-game to tell him what a beast he was.
“He was beaming,” one said. “So proud.”
The Maple Leafs again lost to the Bruins in a seventh game, this time squandering a 3-2 series lead. That meant from late April onwards, it was time to seriously negotiate Marner’s extension without the distraction of an NHL postseason.
Negotiations were contentious at best. During the process, another tendancy of Marner’s became clear: Marner was becoming hypersensitive to public opinion.
Friedman describes this tendancy in detail:
He read too much social media. He’d check replies to his posts, search out reaction to his play. Players and staff worked with him to ease up, or delete apps from his phone. There was also the problem that, as a Torontonian, he was surrounded by family and friends who would text him or tell him what was said about him. (There is zero doubt this is a major reason Marner chose to go to the Western Conference.)
Eventually, the two sides settled on a six-year, $65.41 million extension in September. However, before then, Marner had preliminary talks with the Columbus Blue Jackets regarding an offer sheet, with exact figures and details varying by source.
Of course, the 2019-20 season had more drama for the Maple Leafs. In December, following a disapointing 9-10-4 many would attribute to the Maple Leafs trading away Kadri, a close friend of Marner’s, for Tyson Barrie (who left that offseason), Babcock would be fired from the team. Of course, the pandemic also happened and the postseason resumed in August in Toronto without fans.
Many would argue that the five game series, against the Blue Jackets of all teams, is a perfect encapsulation of this generation of Maple Leafs hockey. A promising, historic game four comeback was followed by a deflating 3-0 loss in the winner-take-all game 5.
For the first time that summer, Marner’s name was seriously floated in trade rumors by the general public.
The pandemic created a situation where the NHL was forced to compile all the Canadian teams into one division due to the travelling restrictions of the Canada-USA border. Theoretically, given how weak the other six Canadian teams were, Toronto should have had a cakewalk to the semifinals. Of course, as it always is, it was much more complicated than that. While the Leafs raced to a surprisingly easy division title and a 3-1 series lead over the Montreal Canadiens, their success would only make the eventual downfall much more hollowing to their fanbase. Marner had no goals and just four assists in the seven game defeat. In the middle of the collapse, in a meeting that was publicized in Amazon’s docuseries, All-or-Nothing, Maple Leafs management met with Marner to discuss his emotions before a pivotal game seven that would ultimately end the Maple Leafs season prematurely.
That offseason, fans, for the first time, were calling for Marner’s head. Mock trades sending him to Nashville were for either defensemen Ryan Ellis or Mattias Ekholm were by far the most popular. Surprisingly, Toronto’s management stuck with the core four (Marner, Matthews, Nylander, and Tavares) for the 2021-22 season.
The 2021-22 season was perhaps the only drama free season in Marner’s career. A newly motivated and determined Marner set personal bests with 35 goals and 97 points while the Maple Leafs set franchise records for wins (54) and points (115). In a first round matchup with the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Maple Leafs again blew a 3-2 series lead and lost in a heartbreaking game seven. However, the sentiment around this season was much more optimistic. For one, for the first time roughly four seasons, Marner performed above expectation, with major assists in games five and seven as part of his eight point effort. Secondly, the Lightning were the defending back to back Stanley Cup champions and would fall just two games short of accomplishing a three-peat that spring.
For the only time in his career, Toronto and its infamously dedicated fan base were satisfied with Marner.
For the most part, 2022-23 was a similar success. Marner set a new career high with 99 points and the Maple Leafs were once again a successful regular season team. Management’s decisions to add Ryan O’Reilly among others at the trade deadline proved fruitful in the playoffs. They once again encountered the Lightning in the first round but with vastly different results. Marner had 11 points in the six-game series that ended with Tavares snapping Toronto’s 19-year drought without a playoff series triumph. Unfortunately, the next series saw Marner record just 3 points in a swift and shocking five game series defeat to the Florida Panthers. Though the entire Maple Leafs team warranted and drew criticism that offseason, Marner, as usual, was most impacted negatively by it.
That August, Matthews put pen to paper on a new contract for over $13 million each season for four years, an extension allegedly agreed to in principle in the summer of 2022, two summers before Matthews would become a UFA. Marner would not give the same assurances two summers before he was set to become a UFA. For the first time, Maple Leafs management had serious internal discussions about trading him and again he was a major subject of internal controversy.
GM Kyle Dubas was believed to be ready to trade a member of the core four, presumably either Marner or Nylander as Tavares’s contract was immovable. President Brendan Shanahan, vehemently disagreed, fired Dubas, and vetoed all trades before Marner’s no-move clause kicked.
With 20/20 hindsight, the 2023-24 season was the point of no return for Marner’s relationship with Toronto. He would be injured and play just 69 games, with a major step back in points to 85, the Maple Leafs struggled to a third place finish in the Atlantic, and lost in a heartbreaking seven game series to the Bruins yet again on David Pastranak’s overtime goal in game seven (a goal some would argue Marner was responsible for). During a frustrating game four, in a clip that broke the internet almost immediately, Nylander, Matthews, and Marner were fighting on the bench with the audio later revealing harsh sentiments Nylander had been harboring towards Marner. Fans were now officially done with Marner and all the evidence suggests this was the point where Marner began seriously considering a departure from Toronto. Sheldon Keefe, Babcock’s successor, was fired with reports later surfacing of his “softer” approach towards Marner that essentially compelled the coach to avoid criticizing Marner privately in fear of potential emotional ramifications.
In January of 2024, amid the Maple Leafs’s struggles, Nylander had inked a $92 million extension. That summer, as it became clear that a Marner trade would not occur due to his no-move clause (Toronto had discussed with the Carolina Hurricanes for Martin Necas and with Vegas for either Shea Theodore or Alex Pietrangelo), negotiations of a Marner extension went nowhere. If Marner’s camp believed him to be more valuable than Auston Matthews, there was no way they would accept a contract less than Nylander’s. Maple Leafs management had no ability to come to its fans and justify a Marner extension worth more than Nylander’s when the Maple Leafs star contributed just three points in seven games while Nylander had just fought a major illness to contribute three goals in four games (including a go-ahead goal in game seven with less than 10 regulation minutes left) and brought passion the fanbase accused Marner and Matthews of lacking.
So then came this past season. For a season with so much pretext and drama, the year was surprisingly excellent. The Maple Leafs put 108 points on the board and Marner topped the 100 point plateau for the first time, with 102. In February that season, Marner demonstrated his prowess in the clutch with an assist on Connor McDavid’s game-winning goal in the Four Nations tournament. During that tournament, Marner had become increasingly close with Vegas’s captain, Mark Stone, which lit off the powder keg of Marner to Vegas rumors. During that trade deadline, Marner’s camp vetoed a three-team trade that would have landed Toronto star winger Mikko Rantanen, sent Tomas Heartl and other pieces to Carolina, and shipped Marner to his eventual destination four months early. Another proposed swap of Marner for Rantanen was also denied. It already was inevitable that Marner would leave Toronto that offseason, especially when he rejected a $96 million extension for eight seasons, but nixing Rantanen’s potential union with the Maple Leafs is a sore subject in Toronto circles that contributes to much of the vitriol Leafs fans feel for their former hero.
Alas, the Maple Leafs won a playoff round for just the second time in Marner’s career, defeating the Ottawa Senators in a mild six game series. The seven game series loss to the Panthers marked yet another encapsulation of Marner’s time with the Maple Leafs being filled with hypothetical wins and what-ifs. The Maple Leafs jumped to a 2-0 series lead but lost the next three games in progressively more heartbreaking fashions, including a humiliating 6-1 defeat in game five at home. Game six once again offered Maple Leafs fans hope for game seven, and once again only led to a higher cliff to fall off of once the Maple Leafs lost another 6-1 game. As the clock ticked down on the Maple Leafs season, boo birds flew each time Marner touched the puck in the third period, with one fan even tossing his jersey onto the ice. For his part, Marner had contributed 13 points in the 13 postseason games, a step down from his typical regular season production but not so much that he deserved the criticism that followed.
The Marner era had concluded. 10 seasons of promise of a dynasty netted just two playoff series wins. There were many times Maple Leafs management went down the wrong road: the denying of Marner’s rookie bonuses that soured their relationship, the John Tavares contract that forfeited all their negotiation leverage, and the unwillingness to trade any of their core four (not to mention the questionable trades they agreed to, leaving the prospect cupboard and general asset pool dry). For an era that will be remembered as a disappointment, it surprisingly would not be unfair to say Marner’s contributions over the past decade have had a generational impact and raised the standard of Toronto hockey; Toronto’s six winningest seasons have all come in the Marner era, Marner himself holds franchise records for fastest to record 700 points, and the record for longest point streak (19 games). Off the ice, Marner has established his own foundation to give back to the his hometown community, most of whom despise him now.
For a moment, there was speculation about Marner potentially joining the Dallas Stars if they chose to trade star winger Jason Robertson following a third consecutive Western Conference Finals defeat, but Dallas elected to hold on to Robertson after lackluster interest led to underwhelming offers. On June 30, Marner to Vegas became official, with the star winger signing the same $96 million deal he rejected from the Maple Leafs.
250 days later, Marner has made his return to the Six. 250 days later, Maple Leafs fans were forced to reflect on the failure of the past 10 years over the Mitch Marner era.
One thought on “Mitch Marner’s return to Toronto: A culmination of 10 years of glory, revolution, and unfulfilled promise”