Mitch Marner is thriving in Vegas, and somehow the conversation around him still keeps circling back to Toronto.
Marner left the Maple Leafs last July on a $96,000,000 deal with the Golden Knights, and it worked out about as well as it could have.
He posted 24 goals and 56 assists for 80 points in 81 games this season, then kept rolling with 10 goals and 19 assists for 29 points across 22 playoff games.
Vegas finished 39-26-17 for 95 points, and that playoff run pushed deep enough to make this the best hockey of Marner's career.
He could be spending this summer as one of the best forwards in the league on a legitimate contender.
Instead, per Steve Simmons, word is Marner still stings over the Leafs giving a rookie signing bonus to Auston Matthews and not him.
PuckEmpire shared that report Saturday, and it landed the way these Marner stories always do.
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Marner's Vegas run makes the grudge look even pettier
This is the eleventh straight summer his camp has found a way to bring Toronto back into the conversation.
That's not a typo. Eleven summers of the same undertone, whether it's a signing bonus from years ago or some version of feeling underappreciated.
The framing always leans on the idea that Toronto uniquely wronged him, and that part just doesn't hold up.
Matthews got the signing bonus as a rookie because of when and how his deal was structured, not because the Leafs were picking favorites among their stars.
Plenty of stars across this league have watched a teammate get a better contract detail without turning it into a decade long grievance.
Auston Matthews still leads Toronto at $13,250,000 against the cap, and he posted 27 goals and 26 assists for 53 points in an injury shortened 60 game season.
Would this story even exist if Marner hadn't found a new stage willing to keep asking about his old one?
The honest read here is simple. Marner has the résumé now to be talked about purely as a contender's best player, and his camp keeps choosing the grievance instead.
That's a strange thing to protect after a season this good, and it's not going away as long as it keeps working as a storyline.
Is Mitch Marner's lingering issue with the Leafs justified after all these years?
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