Panthers' Brad Marchand Haunts The Maple Leafs Again With Marner, Free Agency Comments

When you look at the history of the NHL, certain players haunt particular teams. That includes veteran left winger Brad Marchand and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Whether it was his time as a member of the Boston Bruins, or in his current role with the Florida Panthers, Marchand has always had a knack for doing and saying things that stick in the craw of the Maple Leafs organization and Leafs Nation.

On Tuesday, prior to Toronto's tilt against the Panthers, Marchand made comments that no doubt are going to rattle the cage of Buds fans once again.

Answering questions before the game, Marchand said he narrowed down his choice of teams to sign with this past summer to the Panthers and the Leafs. That fact will live in the hearts and minds of Maple Leafs fans, and not in a good way.

But Marchand has become the master of the double-edged compliment-insult to Leafs supporters. And in the span of two sentences that directly followed each other, Marchand complimented the Leafs as a team while running down Leafs fans – specifically, when it came to the saga of now-former Toronto star winger Mitch Marner.

"As a group, they compete the right way," Marchand said of the Leafs, before shifting to the topic of Marner orchestrating his exit from the Leafs to join the Vegas Golden Knights. "It's unfortunate the fans ran Marner out of town. That's a huge impact for their group. He's a point-a-game player. That hurts."

First thing's first – we're going to take exception with part of what Marchand said Tuesday, as it's certainly not a stone-cold fact that Leafs fans ran Marner out of town. Marchand is well within his rights to hold that opinion, but that doesn't make it true.

In fact, you can make a more compelling argument that Marner pulled the chute on his Leafs career because he wanted the high-end money that comes with being a star while also wanting the relative anonymity of playing in a non-traditional market like Las Vegas. It didn't help the Maple Leafs that a small segment of Leafs fans did give Marner a tough time in recent years, but to argue that Toronto fans acted as a group to hasten Marner's departure from his hometown is more than a little questionable.

But at the end of the day, Marchand once again has shown he can get under the skin of Leafs fans like no one else. In one regard, he consistently pays homage to the passion and history of the Leafs organization, so in that respect, he makes Toronto fans wistful that Marchand played for the Blue and White. But in nearly the same breath, he makes a statement that will infuriate Maple Leafs fans to no end.

That said, it's very refreshing to see Marchand give honest answers to the media, and at the end of the day, he's making these comments because he's just answering questions.

'It Was Between Florida And Toronto': Panthers' Brad Marchand Reveals Signing With Maple Leafs Was Possibility If He Hit Free Agency Marchand added on Tuesday that, despite Toronto's strong play as of late, it was unfortunate to see that the fans "ran" Mitch Marner out of town.

But whenever he's connected to Toronto – either as someone who could've signed here, or as someone who always raises his game when he plays the Leafs – Marchand always seems to find a way to haunt the Leafs and their fans.

Since 2010-11, no NHL player has recorded more points against the Maple Leafs in the regular season than Marchand, who has 21 goals, 58 points, two overtime-winning goals and four game-winning goals against Toronto in that span.

The same goes in the playoffs. Dating back to Toronto and Boston's seven-game thriller in 2012-13, Marchand has scored the most out of any player against the Leafs in the post-season, with 13 goals, 24 assists, 37 points and five game-winning goals.

So bringing up the possibility that he could've been scoring goals for them than against them while the Leafs struggle in the standings will certainly make fans wish for what could have been. 

After all, he way he nonchalantly engages with hordes of press makes it obvious he would've been a high-impact player who could've thrived in the white-hot glare that comes with being a Maple Leaf.

Now, Toronto GM Brad Treliving did use the cap space freed up by Marner's departure on mid-tier NHLers Nicolas Roy, Dakota Joshua and Matias Maccelli. But Leafs fans are painfully aware that Treliving could've spent most of Marner's $10.9-million salary cap space on Marchand, who wound up signing a highly discounted contract at $5.25 million per season with the Panthers, and filled out the Buds' roster with lower-end players. The Leafs' identity would've been preferable to their current one.

So, in a season where the Leafs and Panthers are fighting it out for one of the final Stanley Cup playoff berths in the Eastern Conference, you can say that Marchand's choice to sign with Florida could wind up being the difference between the Panthers making the playoffs and the Maple Leafs missing the post-season. That would be perfectly in line with the long history of Marchand crushing the aspirations of this Leafs team.

So, what we saw and heard from Marchand Tuesday is the latest chapter in the book we're titling, Marchand Haunts The Maple Leafs. In the Modern Era of the NHL, no player has done a better job of making Leafs fans rue his interactions with them than Marchand does. And for the rest of his NHL days, Marchand is going to continue to be the world's foremost expert at getting under the skin of Maple Leafs supporters.

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