‘Not here to talk about that’: Leafs’ Mitch Marner halts contract chatter to focus on season

Toronto Maple Leafs right winger Mitch Marner

Credit: Steven Ellis/Daily Faceoff

We’ll never know if Mitch Marner expected to find himself sitting at Ford Performance Centre, clad in Toronto Maple Leafs blue and white, ever again following his team’s exit from the 2023-24 Stanley Cup playoffs in Game 7 of the first round.

With fellow team icons Auston Matthews and William Nylander signed long-term and then-captain John Tavares already exiting his prime, Marner was the obvious scapegoat. Not only had he displayed a pattern of fading away in Games 5, 6 and 7 of playoff series, but, as a 27-year-old, two-time first team all-star and elite regular-season right winger, he carried significant trade value. Team president Brendan Shanahan indicated after last season that “Everything is on the table,” and frenzied discussion over Marner’s fate ensued, further fuelled by the fact he was a 2025 UFA.

Flash forward to Wednesday morning, and Marner was back, out of hibernation following a summer in which the team sheltered him from media obligations, looking far more stoic than normal, still without a contract beyond this season.

And determined to get out in front of the discussion by opening his availability with a statement.

“Obviously there’s going to be some contract questions, but I’m not here to talk about that,” Marner said, adding that he was on hand to focus on the season.

Leafs GM Brad Treliving echoed Marner’s comment by keeping a tight lock on any discussion regarding Marner’s contract status. That was that.

The Leafs, then, soldier on with not just Marner but their entire forward corps intact from last season aside from departed UFAs Tyler Bertuzzi and Noah Gregor. Toronto did upgrade significantly on defense by signing Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson and fortified its goaltending with Anthony Stolarz, but did Toronto’s offseason really scream, “Everything is on the table?” We’ll never know for sure that Marner didn’t use his no-movement clause to thwart a potential deal, but it’s more likely Toronto saw no option that made sense, according to comments from Shanahan Tuesday when asked why he kept the team’s core – considered by most to be Marner, Matthews, Tavares, Nylander and Morgan Rielly – together.

“When we evaluated our team, the question we asked ourselves after every decision was, whether it was coaching staff, defense, goaltending, forwards, whatever it is: ‘Does this make us better?’ ” Shanahan said. “…We felt the answer and the end of those questions for each of those individual players was, we’re a better team with those players on our team.”

It was a relief to the player leadership group, who were mentally prepared for a major shakeup.

“Our goal is to make the team better and to improve year after year,” Rielly said. “That just means that all options have to be available and on the table. As players, we understand that. I don’t think you ever go into the offseason thinking about an impending doom, but you understand that there’s change that will happen every year. All you can do is keep in touch with your teammates, worry about yourself, make sure you put yourself in the best position possible.”

So the Leafs brass – take a drink – runs it back once more with the core. Marner, in the final season of a contract paying him $10.903 million a year, steps into the void just as Nylander did a year ago. It worked out magically for Nylander in his contract year, as he delivered a career-best 98 points and scored his set-for-life extension by January of last season. But Nylander is also as cool as athletes get, his breezy personality perfectly suited to the market. Marner is the Toronto-born kid who has spent his whole life obsessed with the team and seemingly takes all the social media venom from fans and/or media hard. So why does he still want to put himself through this and remain a Maple Leaf?

Firstly, as he explained Wednesday, he has made a point of staying off social media as much as possible and “I try to keep myself from reading comments about myself the past year, the past two years.” Secondly: despite the squeeze of pressure and the looming contract year, Toronto still has his heart.

“It’s a very hard city, it’s a hard grind, but there’s another 31 teams out there that want to do exact same thing, so it’s never easy,” Marner said. “But it’s my home. It’s the place where I’ve grown up. I have many, many memories of watching this team play Saturday night hockey with my family, sitting there for hours. Now being able to live that dream is pretty special.”

This summer, Marner was still the one controlling his fate. He wanted to be a Leaf, he had the no-movement clause, and he remains a Leaf. What happens after this season is no longer completely in his control. Whether the team commits, presumably, something in the range of $12 million a year could depend a lot on what he shows this season. For what it’s worth, he earned rave reviews from the Vail Camp over the summer and spoke glowingly Wednesday about all the small tricks he learned training with Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon. And Marner’s Leaf teammates believe he’s in the right head space going into 2024-25.

“I think he’s dealt with it great,” said newly minted Leafs captain Matthews. “He’s had a great summer. With all the noise, you can only control so much. He’s put in a lot of work, he looks great on the ice, off the ice, focused, and we’re all here to support him as teammates and as a team. So I don’t think that’s necessarily going to affect him much at all. He’s an amazing teammate and great player for our team, so I’m looking forward to playing with him again.”

Everyone’s saying the right things in September. No surprise there. But Marner’s case is unique in that the next seven months aren’t his proving ground. He has averaged at least 93 points per 82 games for each of the past six seasons, after all. If he wants to justify a possible extension and win over his critics for good, it will all come down to what happens in Game 83 and beyond.

That’s assuming Marner still wants to be a Leaf after this season, of course.

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‘Not here to talk about that’: Leafs’ Mitch Marner halts contract chatter to focus on season

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