07/01/25 08:28:00
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07/01 08:27 CDT Golden Knights acquire Mitch Marner from the Maple Leafs, sign
him for 8 years and $96 million
Golden Knights acquire Mitch Marner from the Maple Leafs, sign him for 8 years
and $96 million
By STEPHEN WHYNO
AP Hockey Writer
Mitch Marner is going to Vegas, after the Golden Knights made another major
move to add a big-time player, snatching up the top pending free agent before
the rest of the NHL got the opportunity.
They got Marner in a sign-and-trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs agreed to on
Monday and announced early Tuesday. They signed the two-time All-Star winger to
a $96 million contract for the maximum eight years before Marner would have
been eligible to go anywhere else.
Marner, 28, will count $12 million against the salary cap through the 2032-33
NHL season. He is coming off setting career highs with 75 assists and 102
points.
Vegas sent center Nicolas Roy to Toronto to jump the line on Marner, who would
have been the most sought-after player beginning at noon EDT.
Instead, the talented, productive winger joins the Golden Knights' successful
core of Mark Stone, Jack Eichel, William Karlsson, Shea Theodore and Adin Hill,
which has made the playoffs three years in a row under coach Bruce Cassidy,
including winning the Stanley Cup in 2023.
Marner has never had that kind of postseason success. Toronto's so-called Core
Four of Marner, Auston Matthews, William Nylander and John Tavares won two of
their 11 playoff series over the past nine years together and never got past
the second round.
Change was coming, and Marner is the first out the door. The No. 4 pick in the
2015 draft leaves the Leafs as their fifth-highest scorer in franchise history
at 741 points in the regular season on 221 goals (14th) and 520 assists
(fourth).
Marner has just 13 goals to show for 70 playoff games, an average of 0.19 that
ranks 94th among those with at least 50 games of experience since he entered
the league in 2016. He is the team's postseason leading scorer over this
stretch with 63 points, ahead of Nylander's 59, Matthews' 58, Morgan Reilly's
47 and Tavares' 31.
For whatever reason, Marner was saddled with an outsized share of the blame for
the early exits, and the Toronto-area native never got the chance to end his
boyhood team's championship drought that dates to 1967 --- almost 30 years to
the day before he was born.
After it was unavailable in Toronto because of Doug Gilmour, Marner will return
to his No. 93 jersey with the Golden Knights. He also wore it in junior hockey
with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League.
The deal for Marner came together as Vegas announced that veteran defenseman
Alex Pietrangelo was stepping away from hockey because his hip injury would
require bilateral femur reconstruction that general manager Kelly McCrimmon
said had "no guarantee of success." Pietrangelo going on long-term injured
reserve in part paves the way for the Golden Knights to fit Marner in under the
salary cap.
"After exploring options with doctors as well as my family, it's been advised
to remove the intensity of hockey to see if my body can improve so that I can
return to a normal quality of life," Pietrangelo said. "This decision has been
difficult to come to terms with after the last 17 years of competition and the
camaraderie with my teammates and coaches. The likelihood is low that my body
will recover to the standard required to play, but I know this is the right
decision for me and my family."
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AP Hockey Writer John Wawrow contributed to this report.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
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