Former teammate turned rivals, Mitchell Marner and William Nylander were an unstoppable duo last season. Here's why Nylander thinks Marner didn't want to leave the team mid-season.
The pair of William Nylander and Mitchell Marner has been applauded time and again. The duo were able to produce the best season of their career in the 2024-2025 NHL season. However, the explosive combo of Mitchell Marner and Williams Nylander couldn’t continue longer. As after the 2024-2025 season came to an end, Marner left the team in favor of Las Vegas Golden Knights.
Marner landed himself a huge opportunity with the Golden Knights. He has a $96 million, eight-year-long contract at the team. His average annual salary sums up to $12 million a year with this current contract. Marner’s move suggested experts to believe that he was looking forward to leaving the team mid-season. Marner was an important part of the Maple Leafs last season, with a career high of 102 points. He was also the 5th best scorer in the league last season.
Nylander, who had a minor scuffle with Marner mid-season, has come forward to debunk any stories revolving around his former teammate. The pair have been teammates since 2016 and basically “grew up together“.
Nylander, who is himself coming off a career best of 45 goals last season, calls Marner a “great teammate” and “incredible person“. The Maple Leafs have never won a Stanely Cup since their victory in 1967. According to Nylander, Marner’s sole focus was on giving his team the best he could on ice and help them win.
He also assures that there was no such notion in his mind about making the switch early on in the season. In his own words-
“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.”
Being one of the closest people to Marner on the team, Nylander emphasises that the team will find it difficult to replace an athlete of his caliber. Although, he also praised the team management for adding depth to their roster with the likes of- Matias Maccelli, Dakota Joshua and Nicolas Roy.
Reminiscing the last season, William Nylander claims that it was the team’s best season in a long time. He particularly appreciates their match against the Florida Panthers. They were able to push the defending champions to the seventh round in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference Second Round.
nhl 
NHL 
