MILAN — William Nylander said Mitch Marner was a “great teammate” and an “incredible person,” and scoffed at the notion the forward was already looking to leave the Toronto Maple Leafs midway through last season.
Nylander said Marner’s sole focus on the ice was to bring success to a franchise that has not won the Stanley Cup since 1967, dispelling the narrative that he may have been looking to head elsewhere with him eligible to become an unrestricted free agent after the season.
“Not sure where that stuff comes from, but I don’t think he was ever thinking of leaving ahead of time,” Nylander told NHL.com at the NHL/NHL Players’ Association European Player Media Tour on Friday. “I actually asked him during the season and he said he was concentrating on Toronto. I didn’t want to press him on that and let him be because it was obviously on his mind, but his play was focused on helping us. Then I asked him after the season and he wasn’t sure.”
Marner eventually went to the Vegas Golden Knights on July 1 as part of a sign-and-trade, landing an eight-year, $96 million contract ($12 million average annual value) in the process.
“It’s tough seeing him go but I’m so happy for him and his family,” Nylander said. “He got to pick where he went so, in that aspect, I’m happy for him. We’re going to miss him a lot but that’s just the business of the sport. That’s the way it is. So we’ve got to regroup as a team and figure out a way to keep winning games.”
Nylander pointed out that he and Marner grew up together in Toronto, teammates with the Maple Leafs since 2016. As for the highly publicized heated exchange the two had on the bench during the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs in which he told Marner to “grow up,” Nylander laughed.
“It’s hockey,” he said. “Things happen in the heat of battle. There was too much read into that.
“We came in and played our first full season together and our friendship just grew from there. He’s an incredible person. Off the ice too. He was the one making sure that we had team events like Halloween parties, dinners, all those kind of events. He would set those things up. Somebody’s going to have to take on that role now because he did an incredible job doing all that stuff.
“And then, just being a friend on the side, just an incredible guy. I could always talk to him about whatever. He’ll be missed. And for what he does on the ice, just an incredible player.”
Nylander said it will be difficult for Toronto to replace Marner’s production — he had an NHL career-high 102 points (27 goals, 75 assists) in 81 games last season and was the League’s fifth-leading scorer — but praised Maple Leafs management for adding offensive depth in forwards Matias Maccelli, Dakota Joshua and Nicolas Roy.
In the process, Nylander said the Maple Leafs should take positives in pushing the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers to seven games in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference Second Round.
“It was probably one of our best seasons since I’ve been in Toronto,” the 29-year-old said. “I mean, we pushed Florida to the limit. We had a couple of [bad] games against them, Games 5 and 7, but for the most part we were right there in that series. So I think we can really build off that and learn from what we did wrong to be better in those situations.”
Nylander said he does not know if he will be linemates with captain Auston Matthews, adding he can play anywhere in the lineup.
As for his own performance, he’s coming off an NHL career-best 45-goal season and hopes to improve on that this season. In fact, when reminded he told NHL.com during the 2019 EPMT in Stockholm that “I’m looking forward to dominate,” he laughed.
“Always,” he said.
