How Mitch Marner set tone for Maple Leafs' miserable season
It all started last summer.
How Mitch Marner set tone for Maple Leafs' miserable season originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here . The Toronto Maple Leafs made it seem like they'd be just fine without Mitch Marner.
After the sign-and-trade of Marner to the Vegas Golden Knights last summer, the Maple Leafs tried to replace his impact with multiple players. And while it's not a direct correlation, it's certainly a strong one -- Marner was gone, and the Leafs suffered. Toronto had made the playoffs for the last nine seasons.
In the first without Marner, the Leafs missed by a lot. In a new story by The Athletic's Jonas Siegel, Chris Johnston and James Mirtle , they break down what went wrong this season in Toronto. In some ways, it all started with Marner.
"The shadow of one person loomed over the opening of training camp, and he wasn’t even there," The Athletic writes. "Mitch Marner, who chose to leave the team after nine seasons in the summer, had gone to the Vegas Golden Knights on an eight-year contract. Marner’s exit was years in the making.