Mitch Marner on his ‘wild and unexpected' path to becoming a Vegas Golden Knight

New York Times

3 days ago

LAS VEGAS – The first person Mitch Marner saw wearing his No. 93 Vegas Golden Knights jersey was his son, Miles, who isn't quite 2 months old.
Marner and his wife, Stephanie, put the tiny, shimmering gold sweater on Miles in their hotel room in Las Vegas just hours after Marner's new eight-year, $96 million contract with the Golden Knights was made official on Tuesday.
Advertisement
'It was just a really special moment,' said Marner, who wore No. 93 during his junior hockey days with the London Knights. He chose the number because his father's favorite player was Hall of Famer Doug Gilmour.
That number is retired in Toronto (in honor of Gilmour) and hangs in the rafters of Scotiabank Arena, the rink Marner called home for the first nine years of his NHL career. On Tuesday afternoon, he was announced as the newest member of the Golden Knights after a sign-and-trade with Toronto that was completed over the weekend.
WELCOME HOME, MARNER FAMILY 😁 pic.twitter.com/IQcX0pSVlh
— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) July 1, 2025
'This is where we wanted to be,' Marner said in front of a host of cameras and media members in the video room of the Vegas practice facility. The 28-year-old was set to hit unrestricted free agency for the first time, and as the class' top prize, he was in position to be wooed by teams across the NHL.
Marner declined that option, agreeing to a long-term contract with the Golden Knights before free agency opened on Tuesday morning. He gave some insight into his thought process and ultimately his decision.
'It was wild and unexpected in a way,' Marner said. 'I expressed to my agent that we had a couple of teams that we really liked and were looking forward to meeting with and talking with.'
On Friday night, during the first round of the NHL Draft, Marner was at home with his wife when his agent, Darren Ferris, called.
'We got the word that something might be going down with Vegas and Toronto, and (Ferris wanted to know) how that feels to my wife and I,' Marner recalled. 'Like I said, this was a spot that was very high on my list. We wanted to come here.
'I went back to my agent and said, 'I'm open to doing this if we can find a way to do it.' A couple hours later (Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon) called me and said that we have a deal going on. I was very happy. I'm very fortunate.'
Advertisement
McCrimmon said he preferred a sign-and-trade with Toronto as opposed to waiting for Marner to hit the open market for two reasons. First, it allowed the Golden Knights to add an eighth year onto the contract, which McCrimmon said lowered the average annual value of the deal. Second, he wanted to avoid the chaos that is the opening day of free agency and the risk of losing Marner to a higher bidder.
'When you look around the NHL, there are some teams that have $20 million of cap space,' McCrimmon said. 'We didn't want to be in a position where it's July 1, we're making a presentation, three or four other teams are making a presentation, and you never know who can come out of nowhere to win the day in a situation like that.'
Vegas traded fourth-line center Nicolas Roy to Toronto for Marner's rights, and got their guy. Meanwhile, Marner was happy to end up at his preferred destination.
'You want to be in a place where you want to win,' Marner said. 'That's the whole goal of why we do this. You want to hoist that Stanley Cup, and this team has shown that they can do that. I'm lucky enough to now hopefully be another piece to help bring it back here.
'This team, since it entered the league, has really pushed the boundaries to be that winning team. That's where I want to be. I want to be in a winning situation. I've been lucky enough to be on some good teams and play with very good players, and unfortunately we weren't able to get over the hump, and that sucks a lot to be honest.'
There surely would've been other Cup contenders bidding for Marner's services had he entered free agency, but he said everything he's heard about the city of Las Vegas also drew him to the Golden Knights.
'The city itself, obviously everyone just thinks of it as the Strip, and there's so much more to it,' he said. 'I was lucky enough to talk to (Maple Leafs teammates Ryan) Reaves and (Max) Pacioretty about everything off of the Strip, living-wise, schooling-wise, just how tight-knit the communities are, and privacy-wise too. A lot of things checked our boxes.
Advertisement
'My wife and I like to go out and enjoy ourselves and have nice dinners and stuff like that, and we can still do that down at the Strip, or you can do it in the Summerlin area, and that's something that grabbed our attention.'
Marner has had a lot of time to think about potentially playing in Vegas. Around the time of last season's trade deadline, the Maple Leafs considered a trade that would've sent him to the Golden Knights, but Marner would have needed him to waive a no-move clause.
'The day prior (to the deadline) we got offered a trade to go somewhere else, and my wife was seven or eight months pregnant at the time and we weren't really going to go somewhere that was just maybe going to be a short stint,' Marner explained. 'If we were going somewhere, it was to sign an extension, raise our child there and grow up there.
'We heard Vegas might be interested in doing a three-way deal. From what it sounded like, not much really happened, going forward process-wise with trying to work the three teams, but that was when we really started talking — that it sounds like Vegas has interest in us, and we have interest in them.'
That deal never came to fruition and Marner finished the season with the Maple Leafs. The Toronto native said he pushed thoughts of a new team aside for the rest of the season.
'That was kind of when we started sitting there awhile, trying to think about it in a way but not over-think,' he said. 'At that time I was still committed to playing Toronto hockey, and wanted to focus on being there and finishing a job there.'
In the second round of the playoffs, after 657 regular-season games, 221 goals and 520 assists, Marner's tenure with the Maple Leafs came to an end. Now, he and his family are excited to begin the next chapter of his career in Vegas, back in his favorite jersey number.
'We wanted to find a new home, and find a new place to grow our family,' Marner said. 'I'm so grateful to be here and so happy to be a part of this team.'