Mitch Marner needed to hire security to guard his house for two weeks after the Maple Leafs were eliminated by the Florida Panthers in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs in May.
In an聽聽at Canada’s Olympic聽orientation camp聽in Calgary, he said that was one of the reasons why he that drafted him, the one he grew up cheering for.
When Marner got home from the disappointment of losing Game 7, his father-in-law alerted him that someone on social media had posted his address online so fans could 鈥渟ay their goodbyes,鈥 Marner said, adding it felt threatening.
鈥淲hen your family safety comes into question, especially having a new son, I don’t think it’s acceptable,鈥 he said. 鈥淗aving full-time security pretty much at your house for two weeks after the playoffs just to make sure no one’s coming to the house, the safety of trying to walk your dog and your child, it was a little unfortunate. But, yeah, we all deal with this stuff.鈥
It was the first time Marner had publicly addressed some of the reasons why he left. He grew up a Leafs fan in Thornhill, so he understands the passion. Still, playoff losses seemed to be blamed on him more than other stars such as聽Auston Matthews, William Nylander and John Tavares. Though he leaves the Leafs in fifth place on their career points list, there’s a 鈥渂ittersweet鈥 taste.
鈥淔or all the negative comments out there, there’s so many love comments,鈥 Marner said. 鈥淭he problem is that the love comments don’t come out as much as the hatred ones, and that’s just the way life goes, and that’s the way the social media has turned in a way.鈥
Marner was a key Leaf for nine years. He broke through at the same time as Matthews and Nylander in 2016-17, and said saying goodbye was hard.
Matthews spoke publicly for the first time about his friend being traded to the Golden Knights at the Hockey Night in Brampton charity event.
Matthews spoke publicly for the first time about his friend being traded to the Golden Knights at the Hockey Night in Brampton charity event.
鈥淭he phone call to Auston, that was a tough one. He had to get back to Arizona pretty quickly after the season. I was going to try to get a sit-down with him before, but it just didn’t pan out with everything happening. That phone call was pretty tough, pretty emotional. Obviously we came in together, we did a lot of things together.
鈥淚t was really tough and saying bye to Morgan (Rielly) as well, J.T. (John Tavares), Willy (Nylander). All those guys really came in together and grew together and really leaned on each other for a lot of things.
鈥淭he market was tough to all of us at times, and we needed to lean on each other.鈥
Marner agreed to an eight-year, $96-million (U.S.) contract extension with the Leafs in a sign-and-trade with the Vegas Golden Knights on June 30, the day before he would have become an unrestricted free agent. The Leafs got centre Nicolas Roy in return. Without the trade, Marner could only get a seven-year deal as a free agent and the Leafs would have received nothing in return.
鈥淚’m forever grateful to be a Maple Leaf and wear that crest on my chest for nine years,鈥 said Marner. 鈥淚 mean, I tried (to) give everything I had for those nine years and it sucks that we weren’t able to get it done. We had so many good teams that just felt short in moments that hurt.
鈥淭he pain that the Leafs Nation felt, we feel it as well. We were the ones living in the moment. We were the ones that wanted to bring (the Stanley Cup) back and it didn’t happen.鈥
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