Mitch Marner 'Wants To Stick It To Toronto' With Free Agency Decision

Mitch Marner wants to 'stick it' to Leafs with his free agency decision, per report

Let's just say this isn't going to be an amicable divorce, as Mitch Marner leaves his hometown and nine years of play with the Toronto Maple Leafs. In fact, local analyst Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star, speaking on TSN's First Up, doesn't hold anything back when describing one of Marner's chief goals in free agency next week:

Let's face it: beyond, making real money, which, it goes without saying, Mitch Marner is going to do, what else does Mitch Marner want to do next season? He wants to STICK IT to Toronto.
He wants to stick it to all the people who he believes gave him a raw deal here. How best do you go about doing that?... You don't do it by scoring a lot of points... and winning individual awards, you do it by winning in the playoffs. Something the Leafs have not been able to do with Marner. So I do think he's prioritizing that as much as he can in this search. And obviously Vegas fits that bill.

The Golden Knights have a Stanley Cup-ready team, having won it all as recently as 2023, though they were knocked out in the first round in 2024 and defeated in five games by the Edmonton Oilers in the second round this past spring. But no doubt, they know how to win in the postseason. The Leafs, of course, won only two playoff series in Marner's nine years there.

As for the "raw deal" Feschuk speaks of, Marner always seemed to be the whipping boy in Toronto for the team's playoff failures, even enduring threats of physical harm to himself and his family at times.

Insider Elliotte Friedman added more fuel to the Vegas fire on Wednesday morning as well, on NHL Network Radio:

"There's a lot of talk about Vegas. I think for some time now, other teams have believed that Vegas is going to be the lead horse here... From people and players who know Marner, they think he's more inclined to go West."

The Golden Knights, however, have just $9.6 million in cap space, and will need to do some "surgery" on their roster. One rumor that emerged on Tuesday about a possible Tomas Hertl trade has quieted down today, but that's an $8.137 million cap hit on the Vegas roster that we should be keeping an eye on.