Mitch Marner on return to Toronto: 'Don't have to talk about it anymore'

Mitch Marner had this game circled on his calendar ever since the 2025-26 NHL schedule came out, and from all accounts, he's relieved it's finally past him.

Marner and the Vegas Golden Knights made their way to Toronto to faceoff against the Maple Leafs, in what was Marner's first time back to the city since being traded last summer. It was a messy divorce with a ton of emotions involved, and you could tell from warmup, the crowd at Scotiabank Arena was going to be all over him.

Prior to warmups tonight, Keegan Kolesar yanked a jersey out of a Leafs fan's hands at the visitor's tunnel that read "sellout" referring to Mitch Marner 👀👏 pic.twitter.com/mOgt2HL1nb
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) January 24, 2026

"Yeah, completely. Definitely," Marner said. "Honestly, yeah. I don't have to talk about it anymore. I'm sure those guys (Maple Leafs) are relieved not having to talk about it, too."

"It was fine," Marner said of the boos, per TSN's Mark Masters. "I knew it was going to come tonight. Yeah, the cheering when I was going off was pretty funny. I didn't see that one coming, in a way. The booing when I had it was what I expected so I just tried to play through it and do my thing."

Marner wasn't a huge factor in the Golden Knights 6-3 win, as it turned into the Jack Eichel and Mark Stone show. Stone spoke after the game about how the team had Marner's back and how they were used to these types of environments, after Eichel went through the same thing in his return to Buffalo.

“That was awesome,” Stone said. “We’ve been through it a couple of times with returns, especially with Jack [Eichel’s] in Buffalo, we were kind of used to it. So we knew what to expect, whether it was gonna be good or bad, but I thought the fans were great. They gave [Marner] a great ovation that I firmly believe he deserved. He put in nine good years, but then once the puck dropped, the competitiveness came out. He doesn’t play for the Maple Leafs anymore, but they tipped their cap to what he did for this organization, which was awesome to see.”

Marner was showed some serious love during a first period tribute video, and he admitted after the game he was fighting back tears.

“Passionate fan base here. They love their team. It was interesting the whole night, and I really appreciate the love and support through the tribute video,” Marner said. “I’ve still got a lot of love for these fans…I was trying to just take it in and not get emotional.”

Marner moves on, with a Golden Knights team that appears to be a serious Stanley Cup contender. Meanwhile, the Maple Leafs have lost five of their past six games and welcome the Colorado Avalanche to town on Sunday.