Mitch Marner, born and raised Canadian, played his first nine NHL seasons with his dream team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. As of 2025’s draft and trade season, he is now a Vegas Golden Knight back in the number he wore as a London Knight all those years ago, #93.
Despite being homegrown, Leafs Nation seemingly always took issue with whatever performance Marner gave on any given game night. Unfortunately, this does not surprise me. Being a Torontonian myself, I understand better than most that the Toronto Maple Leafs are not an NHL hockey team, least of all a Stanley Cup winning team. Every Leafs fan will moan about the curse that our team has not won a Cup since 1967.
What every fan seems to be fine ignoring is the root of this issue: the Leafs have never been a Stanley Cup contender. This team has never been built to withstand the playoffs.
Some older Leafs fans are jaded. They watch every game they can, but they have no expectations that this year will be different. Every season brings in new fans, and the longer they stick around the more hope bleeds from them. The Leafs are not going to win a Stanley Cup. Not now, maybe not ever.
But why?
Take a look at the team we had for the 2024-25 season. Things started as they usually did; rocky. Some players, like Max Pacioretty, missed every game between February to the beginning of the playoffs. Some players, like Auston Matthews, were playing the whole time with minor injuries. Superstars like William Nylander faded into the background, and those in the background were given a fresh coat of paint and labelled the new superstars.
The issue isn’t the players. It isn’t the head coach, it isn’t the team manager. It isn’t even the fans, although that one I could be convinced otherwise. The issue with the Toronto Maple Leafs is that they are not a NHL hockey team. They are a business.
Have you ever been to a Leafs game at Scotiabank Arena in downtown Toronto? I have. A poutine is $14 before tax, a bottle of water maybe around $8. A jersey in the arena store will run you around $300 easily. Of course, you don’t need to buy anything while at a game. Those are all optional additional prices someone could pay. The cheapest seats I’ve sat in have been all the way at the top of the arena with only a wall behind me, and those two seats cost $156.
If the MLSE spent less time finding new ways to squeeze every last nickel from their fans and more time investing into their business, they wouldn’t have to get creative with new moneymaking strategies.
Aside from being a season ticket holder, it takes a special kind of person to purchase tickets to a Leafs home game. I.e., someone rich. Someone with disposable income and the desire to flaunt or impress someone else. No normal fan can buy tickets to more than one Leafs game. It’s just not financially possible in this economy.
The seats filled in the gold and platinum sections in Scotiabank Arena belong to people who are trying to shmooze, who are impressing a girl on their first date, who were gifted the tickets for their birthday. In fact, more often than not those seats are purchased by businesses and corporations for that purpose. The true Leafs Nation fans are not in the arena. They’re standing outside in Maple Leafs Square craning their necks towards the massive screen, all a part of a giant watchparty.
Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the Leafs aren’t a serious team. It could be that Scotiabank Arena is setting all these prices to increase the profit they’ll get from sales. Except, Mitch Marner. Drafted fourth overall by Toronto in 2015, he zapped life into the team and fans alike. Everyone was expecting great things from Markham-born Mitch Marner.
Mitch Marner is not a superstar. He should not be paid like a superstar. He should not be viewed as a superstar. Don’t get me wrong, Marner is a good player. He is a solid, NHL level hockey player. But he’s not Nylander. He’s not Crosby. He’s not Ovechkin. Marner is a good, well rounded hockey player, and incredibly overhyped.
As the seasons continued and Marner improved, and the people representing him advocated for him to be paid more and more, fans started to question why. Why was Marner being paid so much when he wasn’t playing at the level that came with that salary? What made Marner so special? His increasing salary meant less for others on the same team, and less that could be offered to free agents, players potentially looking at a trade. And so Leafs Nation did what they do best: criticise, complain, and hate. People took it as far as blaming Marner himself, saying that if he wanted the big bucks then he should play like he deserved the big bucks. But wasn’t it the fans who called him a superstar first? And pressured him when he didn’t immediately live up to those expectations?
And therein lies the issue with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Their image. Toronto is so concerned with their appearance, how good their hair and makeup looks, how sleek their pre-game outfit is, that they’ve forgotten to maintain what’s underneath the skin.
Players like Marner are integral to forming a team ready to try winning the Stanley Cup. Marner did bring something new and needed to the Toronto Maple Leafs, it just wasn’t what everyone else claimed. Marner doesn’t need to be the new superstar face of the team to be an important addition. Drafting Mitch Marner was not a mistake, it was actually a really good decision for the team. He fit in well with the players, both supported and made his own moves on the ice, and loved every second being a Toronto Maple Leaf.
But of course, being a Leaf isn’t just about playing hockey, because why would it be? He had to be perfect, on and off the ice. He had to smile and wave and autograph at the whims of the fans. He had to skate hard, score more and assist better than any other player on his team. He had to spend every moment living and breathing hockey, even in his personal time. He couldn’t go golfing with his friends without someone saying he should switch professions since he clearly doesn’t care about hockey.
Nothing Marner did was ever good enough for Leafs Nation. Not just Marner. Everyone.
If you want something to change you have to show why change would be better, more beneficial. For Mitch Marner, that means agreeing to a sign-and-trade with the Vegas Golden Knights.
If Leafs Nation wants to support their favourite team, they need to target Scotiabank Arena and the Toronto Maple Leafs management. Make the arena more accessible, both physically and financially. Question management’s decisions on signing, trading and drafting players. Question the decisions Craig Berube makes regarding the lines and the plays the players make. Explore other options available. Call them out.
If the Toronto Maple Leafs want to hoist the Stanley Cup, have their names etched on that trophy, have their team immortalised, they need to play like it. They need to build a team for more than just the regular season. This team needs to spend the regular season building plays and strategies they employ during playoffs that set them apart from every other team, making them the clear uncontested winner.
You can’t win the Stanley Cup without playing for it. It’s time to play. Are you ready, Toronto?
Leafs Nation: you are the toxic partner in this relationship.
