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Ex-Toronto Maple Leafs player rips team and Mitch Marner in vulgar rant

Adam Laskaris
Adam Laskaris
|
May 15 2025, 7:12 pm
Ex-Toronto Maple Leafs player rips team and Mitch Marner in vulgar rant
Jeff Curry/Imagn Images

It doesn’t appear that Mitch Marner has a fan in former Toronto Maple Leafs forward Jay Rosehill.

After the Leafs fell 6-1 to the Florida Panthers in Game 5 on Wednesday night, the pitchforks were out in pretty much every direction as the team were pushed to the brink of elimination.

Rosehill, who hosts Leafs Morning Take and TLN After Dark on The Leafs Nation, ripped into Marner for his play in Wednesday’s game.

“How on earth do those people on Twitter, and you know who you are, how do they defend these guys nine years in a row? Mitch Marner has one style of play and one style of play only, and when the going gets tough, all he has to offer is a spinaround, no-look backhand sauce up the f*cking middle,” Rosehill said. “And that doesn’t cut it in the playoffs. It never has and it never will. You can pull that sh*t off in the regular season… but you’re going to get the best teams with their best preparation playing their best hockey in the playoffs. When Mitch Marner runs up against that, he has nothing else to offer.”

Rosehill played 117 games in the NHL, putting up eight points across five seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers and the Maple Leafs. Notably, he did not suit up for a single playoff game.

“Those f*cking pirouettes that he does in warm-up is how he wants to play the game. How do people defend it anymore? You are not winning with this player leading the charge, you’re not,” Rosehill added.

Marner had four points in the series’ first three games but has been held off the scoresheet in the team’s last two losses, where they have been outscored 8-1. Notably, Marner is a pending unrestricted free agent this offseason and could be nearing his final days in Toronto if he doesn’t sign a new deal with the Leafs.

“My problem is that when a team like the Florida Panthers imposes their will on these Maple Leafs, instead of saying, ‘No no, you stepped it up a notch, we’re taking a step too, we’re not gonna relinquish.’ When the Panthers step up, instead of following suit, they go backwards, and the gap between their play is so phenomenally large and wide,” Rosehill added.

Toronto heads to Florida for Game 6 on Friday night, needing a win to force a winner-take-all Game 7 on Sunday night back at home.

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