Mitch Marner, born and raised Canadian, performed his first 9 NHL seasons together with his dream crew, the Toronto Maple Leafs. As of 2025’s draft and commerce season, he’s now a Vegas Golden Knight again within the quantity he wore as a London Knight all these years in the past, #93.
Regardless of being homegrown, Leafs Nation seemingly at all times took problem with no matter efficiency Marner gave on any given recreation night time. Sadly, this doesn’t shock me. Being a Torontonian myself, I perceive higher than most that the Toronto Maple Leafs should not an NHL hockey crew, least of all a Stanley Cup successful crew. Each Leafs fan will moan in regards to the curse that our crew has not gained a Cup since 1967.
What each fan appears to be nice ignoring is the basis of this problem: the Leafs have by no means been a Stanley Cup contender. This crew has by no means been constructed to resist the playoffs.
Some older Leafs followers are jaded. They watch each recreation they’ll, however they haven’t any expectations that this yr shall be completely different. Each season brings in new followers, and the longer they stick across the extra hope bleeds from them. The Leafs should not going to win a Stanley Cup. Not now, perhaps not ever.
However why?
Check out the crew we had for the 2024-25 season. Issues began as they often did; rocky. Some gamers, like Max Pacioretty, missed each recreation between February to the start of the playoffs. Some gamers, like Auston Matthews, had been taking part in the entire time with minor accidents. Superstars like William Nylander pale into the background, and people within the background got a contemporary coat of paint and labelled the brand new superstars.
The problem isn’t the gamers. It isn’t the pinnacle coach, it isn’t the crew supervisor. It isn’t even the followers, though that one I may very well be satisfied in any other case. The problem with the Toronto Maple Leafs is that they aren’t a NHL hockey crew. They’re a enterprise.
Have you ever ever been to a Leafs recreation at Scotiabank Area in downtown Toronto? I’ve. A poutine is $14 earlier than tax, a bottle of water perhaps round $8. A jersey within the area retailer will run you round $300 simply. After all, you don’t want to purchase something whereas at a recreation. These are all optionally available extra costs somebody might pay. The most cost effective seats I’ve sat in have been all the best way on the prime of the sector with solely a wall behind me, and people two seats value $156.
If the MLSE spent much less time discovering new methods to squeeze each final nickel from their followers and extra time investing into their enterprise, they wouldn’t should get artistic with new moneymaking methods.
Apart from being a season ticket holder, it takes a particular sort of particular person to buy tickets to a Leafs house recreation. I.e., somebody wealthy. Somebody with disposable earnings and the will to flaunt or impress another person. No regular fan can purchase tickets to multiple Leafs recreation. It’s simply not financially doable on this financial system.
The seats crammed within the gold and platinum sections in Scotiabank Area belong to people who find themselves making an attempt to shmooze, who’re impressing a lady on their first date, who had been gifted the tickets for his or her birthday. In truth, most of the time these seats are bought by companies and firms for that goal. The true Leafs Nation followers should not within the area. They’re standing exterior in Maple Leafs Sq. craning their necks in direction of the huge display, all part of a large watchparty.
Now, this doesn’t essentially imply that the Leafs aren’t a severe crew. It may very well be that Scotiabank Area is setting all these costs to extend the revenue they’ll get from gross sales. Besides, Mitch Marner. Drafted fourth general by Toronto in 2015, he zapped life into the crew and followers alike. Everybody was anticipating nice issues from Markham-born Mitch Marner.
Mitch Marner isn’t a famous person. He shouldn’t be paid like a famous person. He shouldn’t be seen as a famous person. Don’t get me improper, Marner is an efficient participant. He’s a strong, NHL degree hockey participant. However he’s not Nylander. He’s not Crosby. He’s not Ovechkin. Marner is an efficient, effectively rounded hockey participant, and extremely overhyped.
Because the seasons continued and Marner improved, and the folks representing him advocated for him to be paid increasingly more, followers began to query why. Why was Marner being paid a lot when he wasn’t taking part in on the degree that got here with that wage? What made Marner so particular? His growing wage meant much less for others on the identical crew, and fewer that may very well be supplied to free brokers, gamers probably a commerce. And so Leafs Nation did what they do greatest: criticise, complain, and hate. Individuals took it so far as blaming Marner himself, saying that if he wished the massive bucks then he ought to play like he deserved the massive bucks. However wasn’t it the followers who referred to as him a famous person first? And pressured him when he didn’t instantly reside as much as these expectations?
And therein lies the difficulty with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Their picture. Toronto is so involved with their look, how good their hair and make-up seems to be, how modern their pre-game outfit is, that they’ve forgotten to keep up what’s beneath the pores and skin.
Gamers like Marner are integral to forming a crew able to attempt successful the Stanley Cup. Marner did carry one thing new and wanted to the Toronto Maple Leafs, it simply wasn’t what everybody else claimed. Marner doesn’t should be the brand new famous person face of the crew to be an vital addition. Drafting Mitch Marner was not a mistake, it was really a extremely good resolution for the crew. He slot in effectively with the gamers, each supported and made his personal strikes on the ice, and liked each second being a Toronto Maple Leaf.
However in fact, being a Leaf isn’t nearly taking part in hockey, as a result of why would it not be? He needed to be excellent, on and off the ice. He needed to smile and wave and autograph on the whims of the followers. He needed to skate laborious, rating extra and help higher than another participant on his crew. He needed to spend each second dwelling and respiratory hockey, even in his private time. He couldn’t go {golfing} together with his mates with out somebody saying he ought to change professions since he clearly doesn’t care about hockey.
Nothing Marner did was ever ok for Leafs Nation. Not simply Marner. Everybody.
In order for you one thing to alter it’s important to present why change can be higher, extra helpful. For Mitch Marner, which means agreeing to a sign-and-trade with the Vegas Golden Knights.
If Leafs Nation needs to assist their favorite crew, they should goal Scotiabank Area and the Toronto Maple Leafs administration. Make the sector extra accessible, each bodily and financially. Query administration’s selections on signing, buying and selling and drafting gamers. Query the selections Craig Berube makes relating to the strains and the performs the gamers make. Discover different choices out there. Name them out.
If the Toronto Maple Leafs wish to hoist the Stanley Cup, have their names etched on that trophy, have their crew immortalised, they should play prefer it. They should construct a crew for extra than simply the common season. This crew must spend the common season constructing performs and methods they make use of throughout playoffs that set them aside from each different crew, making them the clear uncontested winner.
You possibly can’t win the Stanley Cup with out taking part in for it. It’s time to play. Are you prepared, Toronto?
Leafs Nation: you’re the poisonous accomplice on this relationship.
Associated
