For the last nine years, and their entire careers thus far, Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews have been one of the more dynamic duos in the NHL.
The setup man in Marner and the goal scorer in Matthews seemed to connect on a nightly basis, leading the way as the two faces of the franchise in Toronto.
Their success together in the regular season was second to none, but they never found a way to translate that into the playoffs, which has ultimately resulted in a split.
Marner spoke in depth about his tenure with the Maple Leafs for the first time since joining the Vegas Golden Knights in a recent sit-down interview with Mark Masters of TSN. The superstar winger revealed how difficult it was to let his forever teammate and linemate, Matthews, know that he was leaving.
“I mean, obviously the phone call to Auston. That was a tough one. You know, he had to get back to Arizona pretty quickly after the season. I was gonna try to get a sit-down with him before, but it just didn’t pan out with everything happening. You know that phone call to him was pretty tough; it was pretty emotional. Obviously we came in together, we did a lot of things together; it was really tough,” Marner said.
The 28-year-old was dealt to Vegas for Nicolas Roy before quickly signing an eight-year, $96 million contract with the Golden Knights to finalize the sign-and-trade.
How will Marner and Matthews fare on their own?
Now that Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews are no longer teammates, everyone is curious about what each superstar’s production will look like without the other.
Marner won’t be downgrading much, if at all, with Jack Eichel as his new centerman in Vegas, creating a new duo that could potentially emerge as one of the best in the league.
On the flip side, Matthews will need to step up and elevate his game even more. The Maple Leafs have yet to add anyone to fill Marner’s shoes, which puts that much more pressure on the captain to lead the charge and push the team over the hump.
One thing is certain: this will be a fascinating storyline for hockey fans to follow for years to come.
