Mitch Marner Opens Up on Leafs ‘Awkward’ Attempt To Trade Him at Deadline

Mitch Marner is really opening up on his last season as a Toronto Maple Leaf. He now calls the team's attempt to trade him at the deadline this past March an 'awkward' situation for him, and explains why he wouldn't waive his no-trade clause.

The Carolina Hurricanes had come to the Buds seeking to pull off a swap of Mikko Rantanen in exchange for Marner—both superstar players being pending unrestricted free agents. But Marner had his full no-move clause, and when Leafs GM Brad Treliving came to him to see if he would waive it for the trade, Marner declined.

The player talked about it with NHL.com’s Derek Van Diest:

The whole Carolina thing comes up in the middle of the season. It’s a bit of an awkward one. My wife was six or seven months pregnant, we really didn’t want to be a deadline player.
I would have had to leave and go back to Toronto because my wife wasn’t coming down with me, so I was moving into Carolina myself if I did that. The logistics of it and everything, it just didn’t make sense and then from that point on, we told [the Maple Leafs] we were committed to [Toronto] and we were going to play it all out.

In another interview last week, Marner admitted that threats from fans forced him to have security outside his house, making life very difficult for him in Toronto. That all played a large part in his departure in free agency, on a sign-and-trade to the Vegas Golden Knights.

Toronto-born Marner spent nine seasons with the Leafs, putting up tremendous regular-season numbers and performing as one of the team's MVPs. But his playoff stats left plenty to be desired.

Jan. 23, 2026 is now the date for Leafs fans to circle on their calendar. That will be Marner's homecoming to Toronto for the first time, wearing the Golden Knights colors.