Toronto Maple Leafs forward William Nylander didn’t see former teammate Mitch Marner have his eyes set on leaving the team last season.
The saga surrounding his expiring contract was one of the focal points of last season, culminating in a near trade to the Carolina Hurricanes at the trade deadline that ended up falling through due to Marner’s refusal to waive. In the end, Marner was sent to the Vegas Golden Knights in a sign-and-trade that sent Nicolas Roy the other way.
Nylander spoke with NHL.com’s Mike Zeisberger while in Milan as part of a promotion for the upcoming Winter Olympics, where he scoffed at the notion that Marner had one foot out the door last year.
“Not sure where that stuff comes from, but I don’t think he was ever thinking of leaving ahead of time,” he said. “I actually asked him during the season and he said he was concentrating on Toronto. I didn’t want to press him on that and let him be because it was obviously on his mind, but his play was focused on helping us.”
Marner himself stated at his introductory press conference in Vegas that he was committed to playing for the Leafs in the latter half of the campaign in the hopes of winning with his team. While it’s true that his preferred option was to play for the Golden Knights once it became clear his time with the Leafs was over, there has been enough witness to suggest that Marner wasn’t dogging it in his final days donning the Blue and White.
To Nylander, he will certainly miss his longtime teammate, but he echoed Auston Matthews’ sentiments on his focus being on moving forward with what remains.
“We’re going to miss him a lot but that’s just the business of the sport. That’s the way it is. So we’ve got to regroup as a team and figure out a way to keep winning games.”
In his eyes, he sees his team on the verge of taking another step forward in their evolution towards contending for a Stanley Cup. Nylander felt that it was the best season the Leafs have had since he first appeared in 2016 and credited his team for pushing the Florida Panthers to Game 7, though acknowledging the rough showings in Games 5 and 7.
In order to reach that next level, they will surely need to push one another to demand better of themselves. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t close off the ice, as Nylander noted when asked about the infamous exchange with Marner in Game 4 of the 2024 series against the Boston Bruins.
“It’s hockey. Things happen in the heat of battle. There was too much read into that,” he said.
Nylander and the Maple Leafs will host Marner and the Vegas Golden Knights on January 23rd, 2026.
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