Marner joins long list of Toronto Maple Leafs stars to end on ugly terms
When Mitch Marner’s time with the Toronto Maple Leafs came to an end, it was certainly not one with a shortage of opinions.
After nine seasons with the franchise, Marner exited via a sign-and-trade that saw him depart for the Vegas Golden Knights on an eight-year deal, writing an emotional goodbye to Leafs fans on the way out.
For some, it was a welcome departure for a player that wasn’t able to lead the team to playoff success during his nine years in Toronto.
For others, it was a rough departure to a player they’d enjoyed cheering on for nearly a decade.
But whatever, the case was, it surely wasn’t unique.
Marner finished his time in Toronto fifth in all-time scoring in both the regular season and the playoffs, putting up 741 regular season and 63 postseason points while wearing a Leafs jersey.
Of the four players who rank higher than Marner in Leafs all-time scoring, none of them retired in Toronto.
Dave Keon had one of the ugliest departures in Leafs history, eventually leaving for the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the now-defunct World Hockey Association in 1975.
“It was a business arrangement that didn’t work out. I had to go find a job somewhere else,” Keon recalled in 2005 to the Toronto Sun.
It took over four decades before he finally reconciled with the Leafs, having his number honoured in 2016.
Darryl Sittler once told the Toronto Star’s Milt Dunnell that “I finally decided I could not remain a Leaf any longer” when he left the franchise for the Philadelphia Flyers in 1982.
Borje Salming, before leaving for a season in Detroit in 1989: “In Toronto we lost a lot. I want to see everybody happy. That’s most important to me. If you win, everybody is happy, the family is happy, and it’s so much easier to live, that’s all.”
And then there’s Mats Sundin, who reversed a shot at retiring as a Maple Leaf go chase a Stanley Cup dream with the Vancouver Canucks in 2008: “The Vancouver opportunity was simply the best fit.”
While many dreamed of the four players — all of whom have a statue outside the arena on Legends Row — ending their career as Leafs, not a single one of them did.
Sure, they might have left under different circumstances, and all might have been older than Marner is now at age 28, as both Sundin and Salming only played one season with their new team. But they all picked different avenues rather than keeping up their legacy status as a lifelong Leaf, or something close to it in the case of Sundin who joined the franchise at age 23.
Marner will go on to wear number 93 with the Golden Knights, a nod to former Leaf Doug Gilmour.
Gilmour himself also left the Leafs via a trade after parts of five seasons with the team, working with then-GM Cliff Fletcher to orchestrate his departure to the New Jersey Devils.
“I told Cliff I wanted to play for a team that really wanted me. One with good management and good coaches, and a chance to win the Stanley Cup,” Gilmour said in 2017 of his trade out of Toronto.
Marner’s legacy in Toronto may be forever a complicated one, but it surely isn’t something the fans haven’t seen before.
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