Mitch Marner Details Scary Fan Incident After Maple Leafs’ Game 7 Loss
Marner was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights this summer
It's no secret that former Maple Leaf Mitch Marner's time in Toronto didn't exactly end on a high note, but it turns out that things got even uglier than most people realized.
Marner was dealt to the Vegas Golden Knights via a sign-and-trade just before the start of NHL free agency earlier this summer. This came with the Maple Leafs at a bit of a franchise crossroads when it came to their core players, and Marner — whose play was heavily criticized in the team's final series against the Florida Panthers — was the odd man out.
However, it's one thing to criticize a player's play, but Marner has revealed that things got much worse than that after the Leafs' Game 7 loss to the Florida Panthers in the second round of the playoffs.
In a new interview with TSN that was conducted at Team Canada's Olympic camp, Marner said that after the loss, his father-in-law gave him a heads-up that his home address had been posted on social media.
The poster said that this was so fans could "say their goodbyes," which Marner said felt threatening.
Mitch Marner revealed that he needed to hire security at his home after the Maple Leafs' Game 7 loss to the Florida Panthers. (Photo by Mark Blinch/NHLI via Getty Images)
"When your family safety comes into question, especially having a new son, I don’t think it’s acceptable," he said. "Having full-time security pretty much at your house for two weeks after the playoffs just to make sure no one’s coming to the house, the safety-wise of trying to walk your dog and your child. It was a little unfortunate, but yeah, we all deal with this stuff."
This was obviously the work of a very small fringe group of lunatic Leafs fans, but it always seems like this kind of behavior pops up in especially rabid fanbases, which, for better or worse, the Leafs have.
Marner definitely needed a change of scenery, and going to a market like Vegas, where he won't be under a microscope the way he was in Toronto, will be big for him.
I think he's in for a big year. We’ve seen this before. Guys like Phil Kessel and Nazem Kadri left Toronto under a cloud — and both won Cups soon after.
I'm not necessarily saying that will happen to Marner, but the Golden Knights are always contenders, so maybe it could.