Mitch Marner formally introduced to Golden Knights: ‘We didn’t want to lose out on this opportunity’

Vegas Golden Knights forward Mitch Marner and general manager Kelly McCrimmon held an introductory press conference as the 28-year-old winger met the media for the first time, since being traded from the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“With Mitch Marner, we’re getting one of the best forwards in the NHL,” Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon said of Marner. “He’s an elite playmaker and a tremendous passer. He’s dynamic and our fans will love this player. He really adds to our team.”

Marner spoke at length to assembled media wearing No. 93, a number that he wore during his major junior career with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League. It’s a number that is retired by the Maple Leafs, with Doug Gilmour’s banner hanging from the Scotiabank Arena rafters.

“Obviously, the winning regimen they’ve put up five years, or really since they entered the league,” Marner said of joining the Golden Knights. They’ve got such a competitive team every year, they’ve got such good players here. The living arrangements from talking to (Max) Pacioretty and (Ryan Reaves) the past couple weeks, it seemed like everything was a pretty good fit for my wife and I and our new son. The winning aspect really helped with everything as well. Lucky enough it all worked out and this is where we wanted to be.”

Marner said the Golden Knights’ culture of winning was a very attractive quality, along with the quality of players.

“You want to be in a place where you want to win. That’s the whole goal of why we do this. You want to hoist that Stanley Cup. This team has shown they can do it,” Marner said.

Marner said he expressed to his agent, Darren Ferris, that there were a few teams that he wanted to consider and really liked, and thought speculation about his next team may have started to begin during the first day of the 2025 NHL Draft. Ferris called Marner and on Friday evening, the plan to join the Golden Knights started coming to fruition. Marner said he was open to joining the Golden Knights, and immediately accelerated the process.

“We thought about going to free agency but we didn’t want to lose out on this opportunity,” Marner said.

Marner outlined a timeline of when he started considering the Golden Knights, and said that the day prior to the NHL trade deadline, the Maple Leafs presented him with an offer to go elsewhere. While Marner did not state the team, it has been widely reported that the Golden Knights, Maple Leafs and Carolina Hurricanes attempted to engineer a three-way trade with Marner and Mikko Rantanen as the principals.

“I think it was the day of (the deadline). I think the day prior, we got offered a trade to go somewhere else. My wife was 7-8 months pregnant at the time. We weren’t going to go somewhere that was going to be short stint. If we were going to go somewhere, we were going to sign an extension, raise our child there and grow up there. Then we kind of heard that Vegas might be interested in a three-way deal. From what it sounded like, not much kind of happened, process-wise, trying to work with three teams.”

Marner then said he spoke to his agent and his family about the next steps, after the playoffs ended.

“At that time, I was very committed to playing with Toronto and wanted to focus on being there and finishing a job there. After the season ended, I went through the discussions of what this could look like and luckily enough Vegas came with the deal on Friday. This was the first destination we wanted to go to and worked out very well.”

Marner said he thought he’d never leave Toronto and that it would be really tough to leave Toronto. And this may be a moot point, as a new member of the Golden Knights, but Marner alluded to the idea that he told the Maple Leafs he’d be willing to test free agency if need be, prior to the start of the 2024-25 season.

“Last year in Toronto, or two years ago really, it’s tough. We didn’t win, obviously. We didn’t do what we wanted to do. Stuff started going north, going south. We didn’t know what was going to happen. A lot of trade rumours all last summer and didn’t know what was going to happen in that regard, either. As soon as the year started up, we were ready to commit and play hockey and see what would happen. At the same time, we were willing to take it to the distance and we kind of told Toronto, that was our plan. I was so grateful to play there for nine years.”