Toronto Maple Leafs veteran enforcer Ryan Reaves has come to the defense of Mitch Marner.
Marner played out his contract and ended up agreeing to a sign-and-trade with the Vegas Golden Knights. Since leaving, Maple Leafs fans have taken aim at Marner, which Reaves thinks is unfair.
“I went out for dinner with Mitchy yesterday,” Reaves said on The Cam & Strick podcast. “Mitchy earned the right to go wherever he wants, and he’s dedicated his whole career to Toronto, a hometown guy, and he’s poured everything he had into it, and sometimes it’s just time to move on. There’s not much else to say about that. I’m happy for him. He deserved the contract he got. Wish him the best here for sure.”
Not only does Reaves say Marner deserved the right to go anywhere, but he believes the criticism against him isn’t fair.
The enforcer knows Maple Leafs fans can be ruthless, but he says Marner gave them several years of great play they should be thankful for.
“I think they can be a little ruthless to him, I guess just because he’s the hometown guy and sometimes fans want to point fingers at somebody,” Reaves said. “I think there’s two sides to the fans in Toronto, I think there’s the ones that just want to win so bad that they’re willing to drag anybody through the dirt, and then there’s the loyal fans that just want to cheer on a good team. There’s a lot of fans there, so you get a lot of both. It’s tough for any player when you’re reading all the hate that you get and it’s probably just frustrating.”
Marner agreed to an eight-year, $96 million deal with the Golden Knights.
Marner ‘Thrilled’ to Play for Golden Knights
After agreeing to the sign-and-trade, Marner spoke to the media and was thrilled to join Vegas.
Marner said Vegas was the place he wanted to be, as he believes it will give him the best chance to win.
“You want to be in a place where you can win. That’s the whole goal of why we do this. You want to hoist a Stanley Cup. This team has shown that they can do it. I’m lucky enough to now hopefully help bring it back here,” Marner said… “We thought about going to free agency, but this is the place we want to be. We didn’t want to lose that opportunity and we want to join this hockey team.”
The Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup in 2023.
Maple Leafs GM Calls Marner an All-Time Great
Despite never helping Toronto win the Stanley Cup, Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving called Marner an all-time great.
Marner is fifth all-time in Maple Leafs points and fourth in franchise history in assists. With that, Treliving called Marner one of the greatest Maple Leafs ever.
“He’s going to go down as one of the great Leafs, right? The statistics prove it. You know, ultimately, the player has a choice,” Treliving said on July 1.
Despite being a local player, Marner opted to leave the Maple Leafs for the Golden Knights.
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