Having helped Vegas claim the Western Conference crown, Mitch Marner described reaching hockey's title round as a meaningful milestone of his career — yet he also dropped some veiled remarks about his Toronto tenure, the club where his initial nine professional seasons played out.
He acknowledged on May 26 that, in all honesty, he'd lived through some dark stretches in the sport.
On Tuesday, 48 hours after Carolina knocked Vegas out of the title round, Marner went deeper on those words in what was his closing press appearance of the campaign.
Put simply, Marner described enduring bleak stretches with the Leafs, where relentless scrutiny and the burden of online pressure left the prospect of suiting up feeling genuinely hard — a mental "dark hole," as he put it. He also credited his loved ones and teammates with carrying him through that rough patch and pushed others to open up about their struggles with people close to them.
When Marner spoke at length, he framed it around how much mental health matters to him personally. He recounted that he'd spent roughly the past five years working to look after his own mental health, and expressed gratitude for the remarkable group of teammates in Toronto he could confide in and open up to, as well as his wife, his brother, and his parents.
He described some genuinely dark moments during that time, when even the idea of taking the ice felt heavy in many respects — a bleak mood, a kind of dark pit. He again voiced thankfulness for the people in his corner, the teammates who checked on him and recognized he was wrestling with something he could discuss.
Marner stressed how vital it is to keep tabs on the friends, family, and people surrounding you, calling mental health a subject that, while more openly discussed in the current era, still goes ignored far too often.
He observed that many people, himself included, get hooked on social media — bombarded by comments and chatter about themselves. Over the previous two or three years, he said, he'd worked to pull back from it and step away entirely, which he believes has helped in numerous ways, even if he couldn't fully put it into words.
Ultimately, Marner said, the key is being willing to talk things through. People want you present, he noted — they want you in their lives — and no one should ever hesitate to speak about their feelings, fears, and whatever they're facing.
He closed by reiterating how grateful he was to have had so many people in his life he could lean on and share with, saying it made him a better person.
Marner reached the playoffs in every one of his nine Toronto campaigns, but the franchise — without a title since 1967 — could never push beyond the second round. Despite ranking among the best forwards the club has ever had, with a tally of 741 points over 657 contests — a rate exceeding one per outing — he watched his standing among supporters erode as he and his teammates repeatedly fell short in the decisive moments.
Across the summer, Marner secured the fresh surroundings he'd been after, inking a contract worth $96 million over eight seasons with Toronto before being shipped to Vegas.
In a Golden Knights sweater, Marner plainly rediscovered his game and the joy he takes in the sport. The gifted winger emerged during the postseason under bench boss John Tortorella, pacing the whole league in scoring on a 29-point haul (10g, 19a) over 22 outings.
In the end, Carolina downed Vegas across six contests, but Marner left it all out there — including, among other feats, a third-game hatty in the Final, the fastest the championship round has ever witnessed.