Marner Criticism: From Fan Favorite to Toronto Villain

When the Vegas Golden Knights arrived in Toronto on Saturday night, Mitch Marner played his first game in front of Maple Leafs fans since leaving the club.

In the summer, Toronto traded him after nine seasons, as he no longer wanted to extend his contract. He then complained in the media that living in Toronto had taken a toll on him mentally.

There wasn’t a fan who didn’t register the news between seasons. And the reaction of the stands to his return was noisy.

Before the match, the club prepared a commemorative video for him, during which the reactions were still embarrassed, accompanied by applause and beeps. But when the game started, it was clear that the once beloved and celebrated Marner was Toronto’s new enemy number one.

A buzz accompanied his every touch with the puck.

The boo’s were LOUD for Marner’s first puck touches 😳 pic.twitter.com/JDE57uHgYP

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) January 24, 2026

Morning with the NHL is an article in which we regularly address one topic from the best hockey league in the world and provide a short summary of the night’s events.

When did it go wrong?

When Toronto drafted Marner 4th overall in 2015, it was a dream come true for him and his family. He comes from Markham, a town about 30 kilometers from downtown Toronto, and grew up a fan of the Maple Leafs.

He looked destined to become the club’s new icon. He really was a star – he scored more than 90 points in four seasons, reaching 102 in one. In the history of the Maple Leafs, no former player who played at least 400 games with the club has a higher scoring average than him.

However, his relationship with the club and fans was changing. At first he was excellent, then he was characterized by hope for a bright future, but that turned into frustration from poor performances in the playoffs and then to psychological discomfort bordering in many cases on hatred, allegedly even cyberbullying.

“The fans here are very passionate, they have a relationship with the club. I know that, I was born here and grew up here. But when it comes to the safety of my own family, especially with a young son, it’s unacceptable. We paid a private security service to guard the house around the clock,” he described his life before the transfer from Toronto and also talked about death threats.

But there were also accusations that he was exaggerating things on purpose. “It was a classic manipulation of information for one’s own benefit,” wrote journalist Steve Simmons from the Toronto Sun newspaper, one of the most widely read in Canada.

His case was discussed overseas for a long time, especially because of the media interest in the Maple Leafs in Canada. However, it follows from several articles that he himself was also to blame for his psychological discomfort.

“He played better than what was written about him on the internet, but we couldn’t convince him of that,” said his former teammate