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Bold Stanley Cup Claim Made on Maple Leafs and Marner
Analyst’s pick of which team—the Maple Leafs or Golden Knights—is better suited to win the Stanley Cup might surprise some.
Mitch Marner and the Vegas Golden Knights take on Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight. It’s still weird saying that.
More than six months after the Markham, Ontario native left his hometown team for Vegas, things have come full circle with two matchups against his former club in the span of a week. As a result, chatter around Marner’s decision to leave Toronto is back at the forefront, with debates once again swirling over whether he made the right choice.
TSN analyst Martin Biron joined the party, recently asked whether Marner truly has a better chance at winning a Stanley Cup with the Golden Knights than the current Maple Leafs do without him—and his answer might surprise some: no.
“I’m gonna say not, because the West right now, you look at Colorado, you look at Minnesota, you look at Dallas, where does Vegas fit? And not only this year, but the next few years, when it comes to trying to get to the Stanley Cup from the Western Conference. I look in the East, and obviously, the Toronto Maple Leafs are not where they would want to be right now. But it’s still so much more closer in the East, and there’s a much easier path to the Stanley Cup final and winning a Stanley Cup with the Toronto Maple Leafs than it is with the Vegas Golden Knights,”
The 28-year-old Marner enters Thursday’s contest with 47 points (11 goals, 36 assists) in his first 45 games as a Golden Knight. He was, of course, dealt to Vegas for Nicolas Roy in a sign-and-trade this summer before inking an eight-year, $96 million extension with the club.
All Eyes Will Be On Mitch Marner Come the Playoffs
Whether fair or not, Marner absorbed the brunt of the criticism for the Maple Leafs’ playoff shortcomings over the past decade. As a result, there will be no shortage of pressure on the superstar winger to change the narrative in Vegas—assuming they reach the postseason.
If Marner can carry his regular-season production into the playoffs, the Golden Knights will have a strong chance to prove Biron wrong and push for a second Stanley Cup in four years. What Vegas does have working in its favor is that by winning the Pacific Division, they would avoid the aforementioned heavyweights in Colorado, Dallas, and Minnesota until the Western Conference Final.
On the other hand, if the same postseason struggles resurface, Toronto—and its fanbase—may feel increasingly justified in the decision to finally move on from one of the most talented players in franchise history, while Golden Knights fans could find themselves experiencing the same frustration Leafs Nation endured for 10 years.
Next: The William Nylander Experience Is Wearing on One Analyst
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