Playing hockey for the Toronto Maple Leafs is intense already. The fan base is passionate, and every year, expectations are sky-high. Maple Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz has learned that the fans can be ruthless, but he’s not the only one.
Mitch Marner was the focal point of a scary incident in his last days with the team. In an interview with TSN, Marner summed up the most frightening incident that happened at the end of his time with the Maple Leafs.
Mitch Marner and His Last Days With the Maple Leafs
Marner spoke recently with TSN’s Mark Masters on a variety of topics. One of them, was his last days with the Maple Leafs organization.
The Game 7 loss to the Florida Panthers wasn’t easy to deal with on a professional level. The difficulty level ramped up when Marner told a story that would make any fan feel uneasy if it were to happen to them.
“(You) get home, you’re pretty disappointed, you’re pretty devastated at that. The thought of it being my last Maple Leaf game at home,” Marner said to Masters. Marner then reveals a conversation between himself and his father-in-law that took place minutes after he arrived home after that Game 7 loss.
“[He] goes, ‘I just want to let you know, we’ve got people sending us screenshots of a guy posting your address online saying that if people want to come pay us a visit and say, you know, their goodbyes, in a quotation way, here’s the address’,” Marner continued. “It was a little tough. We kind of dealt with it for the last two years in a way. The market’s very passionate. They love the team. I mean, I know it. I was born and raised there. I’ve been a part of the Leafs Nation for a long time.”
“When your family’s safety comes into question, especially having a new son, I don’t think it’s acceptable.”
Marner and his wife, Stephanie, welcomed their new baby boy on May 4th, only 14 days before Game 7 against the Panthers.
“Having full-time security at your house for two weeks after the playoffs just to make sure no one’s coming to the house,” Marner said. “It’s unfortunate. We all deal with this stuff.”
Former Maple Leafs’ Marner & Other Players Have Received Death Threats
Unfortunately for hockey players like Marner, it doesn’t end with a security detail.
Masters also wrote about something Marner’s agent discussed on a podcast with NHL insider, John Shannon.
“We had people throwing stuff in his yard,” Marner’s agent, Darren Ferris told Shannon and his co-host. “There was another occasion where there was a death threat, and we traced it to a kid in Oakville, Ont.”
Marner isn’t the only hockey player to receive a death threat, but that doesn’t make it okay. Stuart Skinner of the Edmonton Oilers and Cutter Gauthier of the Anaheim Ducks.
With Gauthier, he received death threats when he was traded from the Philadelphia Flyers to the Ducks. There were rumors online about Gauthier not wanting to play for the Flyers, which sparked this fan reaction.
Playing goalie for a team that has gone to the Stanley Cup Final in back-to-back seasons has it’s drawbacks.
“This year definitely got intense. There was times where security had to be involved,” Chloe Skinner, Stuart’s wife, revealed in an appearance on the Breaking the Ice Podcast. “I specifically have DMs filled with death threats towards the kids, towards myself, from anonymous accounts. It can get really ugly, people threatening if they ever see us, they’re going to take us out. It gets intense.”
“I’m making it lighthearted right now, but when I do read those, I get really scared, and I do obviously worry for the safety of my family and my young boys. It’s terrifying to think that there might be people out there who are going to hurt us over the result of a game. It is a little deranged.”
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