Mitch Marner leaves behind a funny dressing room responsibility with the Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs will have a big hole to fill with Mitch Marner’s departure — and no, we’re not just talking on the ice.
During his nine seasons in Toronto, Marner had become one of the faces of the franchise, praised for his successes and often scrutinized for the team’s tough playoff losses.
Toronto won’t exactly easily replace a player coming off a 102-point season.
But someone will also have to take on one of Marner’s off-ice duties, as Leafs forward Matthew Knies told the Toronto Sun‘s Lance Hornby about how Marner had one of the biggest jobs inside the team’s dressing room.
“There’ll be a new [dressing room] DJ,” Knies said.
But will it be Knies himself? Well, if his past quotes are any indication, he might need a few more years of time in the NHL to take on that role.
“I feel like I haven’t been here long enough to have that [DJ] responsibility,” Knies had said previously in the year in an interview with the NHLPA. “Usually, Mitchy is running the iPod, but he does listen to some of the stuff I do, so it’s all good.”
Who would be a good fit for Leafs locker room DJ?
If Knies himself doesn’t think it’d be a good responsibility for him, we’d need to start thinking about the Leafs’ other veteran leaders for the role.
John Tavares has been ridiculed for basically his whole career for a seemingly bland personality, so the former Leafs captain is probably out.
Auston Matthews and William Nylander are already facing enough media and team responsibilities, so perhaps they’re out too.
Even though he’s been around the Leafs longer than anyone else, Morgan Rielly probably has enough to think about with a young son at home.
If we’re looking for someone who’s not too old but not too young, has a hype-up-his-teammates type personality, and has been around the NHL long enough to understand the vibe of a locker room, Max Domi might be the perfect fit.
In any case, we’ll know in a few months who exactly is controlling the tunes for Toronto.
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