SIMMONS: The mystery of Mitch Marner - the greatest unpopular player in Leafs history
Toronto should have loved Mitch Marner the way it once loved Doug Gilmour or Darryl Sittler or Wendel Clark or, long before that, Dave Keon.
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How did it happen that one of the great, uncanny talents in the modern history of Maple Leafs will walk away from the team in a few days time with the circumstances surrounded by difficulty, indifference and disdain?
We should have loved Mitch Marner, we in the broad sense, the way we once loved Doug Gilmour or Darryl Sittler or Wendel Clark or, long before that, Dave Keon.
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We should have celebrated all that he was and could have been. But the marriage between athlete and community got lost in playoff instability, the relationship between star and its hopeful fanbase tripped all over itself until time ran out and there was no place to go for counselling.
Toronto adored the best of little Gilmour because of all he gave and because he was never better or bigger than when circumstances required him the most.
Toronto adored the fight in Clark, the combustion in his game. He would scrap with anyone, hit anyone and score on anyone.
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In Marner there was everything that should have translated to local celebrity, the kind of Leaf who walks around for the rest of his life just being applauded for being a Leaf.
He was undersized and Toronto always has had a certain hockey affection for the little guy. He was from here, one of us, and we love our own.
His on-ice vision was near Gretzky-Kucherov-like. His skating has always been exemplary. His side-to-side movement has been almost Crosby-like.
His scoring numbers — he’s the first Leafs winger to score 100 points, the first Leafs winger to average 90 points in his first nine seasons as a Leaf, never once missing the playoffs.
He has his own charity foundation and seemed happy to give back.
He was all that and more — so why didn’t we embrace him the way we have embraced so many in the past?
Maybe it was his public persona. He came across as stiff and disingenuous. The more he said in interviews, the more his words would be twisted or over-analyzed.
He wasn’t the debate captain from his school days and maybe someone along the line — an agent, a parent, a media-relations person, a general manager — should have told him that he doesn’t come across well.
That his words didn’t translate to the public at a time when social media distorts every syllable spoken. In post-game scrums, which is how the Maple Leafs have chosen to feature their talent to the public, Marner often had the look you might see on one of those movie hostage videos: In other words, get me out of here now.
That made him as uncomfortable a figure as few have been in this city. Toronto wants to love its athletes. That always has been the way.
They love Jose Bautista and the bat flip and Edwin Encarnacion and the game-winning playoff home run and they love the MVP that Josh Donaldson won with the Blue Jays. And the excitement. They love the excitement.
That makes them Toronto figures forever. Just as the World Series winners are from some 32 years ago.
This is city is like an elephant, it has a long memory. Which is why Keon and Dave Stieb and Roberto Alomar and Paul Molitor and Tom Henke and Kawhi Leonard and yes, even Vince Carter, are figures for the ages here.
Names and faces we’ll never forget.
They all had moments. Kawhi had the shot. Keon had the four Stanley Cups along with Frank Mahovich and so many more. Alomar had the home run in Oakland, long before his name came down at what used to be SkyDome. Carter won a dunk competition and that made him important for some reason.
What was Marner’s moment to remember in nine years as a Maple Leaf?
He did make the overtime pass for Team Canada in the 4 Nations tournament that resulted in Connor McDavid’s winning goal.
In 18 prominent games as Leafs — that’s Games 5, 6 or 7 of a playoff series — he scored no goals, set up six others.
That kind of production made him undependable. He was given 20 minutes or more of ice time almost every playoff game he played and most nights you didn’t wait up to watch the Marner highlights on SportsCentre or on your phone — because there weren’t any.
And he has heard enough about disappearing come playoff time that the conversation makes him angry. For mostly circumstantial reasons, he gets singled out more than linemate and captain Auston Matthews and more than the carefree William Nylander.
And he doesn’t want to play here anymore because frankly he’s tired of being the Maple Leafs scapegoat.
He doesn’t want to live that life. Some athletes would look at this differently. That they would want to prove the doubters wrong.
Marner instead wants to run from them now. And get rich with life-changing money all at the same time in free agency. He lived up to the obligations of his contract and now he is free to go elsewhere. That’s his choice.
Nine years is a long time to play with one team. That’s more seasons than we got from Gilmour, more assists than Keon, more points than Clark.
And yet, this cold goodbye comes now. Cold from one side. Cold from the other as the heat of July approaches.
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