Toronto Maple Leafs winger William Nylander said Friday that former teammate Mitch Marner was not thinking of moving on to a different team during last season. 

Marner, who was set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, left the Maple Leafs this summer as part of a sign-and-trade that moved him to the Vegas Golden Knights on an eight-year, $96 million contract with forward Nicolas Roy heading back to Toronto in the deal. The Maple Leafs approached Marner about waiving his no-trade clause in a deal with the Carolina Hurricanes prior to the trade deadline, which he declined to do.

“Not sure where that stuff comes from, but I don’t think he was ever thinking of leaving ahead of time,” Nylander told NHL.com at the NHL/NHL Players Association European Player Media Tour. “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.”

Marner and Nylander were cornerstones for the Maple Leafs along with star centre Auston Matthews dating back to 2016, they helped the team reach the playoffs in all nine of their seasons together, but failed to find the ultimate success. The Maple Leafs advanced past the first round just twice in those nine tries and fell in the second round of both the 2023 and 2025 postseasons. 

A memorable heated moment took place between the two during the 2014 playoffs when Nylander told Marner to "grow up" during a frustrated exchange on the bench. 

“It’s hockey,” said Nylander, who laughed when the incident was brought up by Mike Zeisberger of NHL.com. “Things happen in the heat of battle. There was too much read into that. “We came in and played our first full season together and our friendship just grew from there. He’s an incredible person. Off the ice too. He was the one making sure that we had team events like Halloween parties, dinners, all those kind of events. He would set those things up. Somebody’s going to have to take on that role now because he did an incredible job doing all that stuff.

“And then, just being a friend on the side, just an incredible guy. I could always talk to him about whatever. He’ll be missed. And for what he does on the ice, just an incredible player.”

The Maple Leafs were largely quiet in the off-season despite losing a key piece Marner. Toronto acquired winger Matias Maccelli from the Utah Mammoth prior to Marner's sign-and-trade and added depth players such as Michael Pezzetta and Travis Boyd on July 1. The team also acquired Dakota Joshua from the Vancouver Canucks and sent veteran forward Ryan Reaves to the San Jose Sharks for defenceman Henry Thrun later in July.

As the season nears, the Maple Leafs have $1.9 million in cap space, per PuckPedia, and appear set to avoid a cap crunch for the first time in several years.