Knies: Maple Leafs’ camp set to be ‘a little weird’ without Mitch Marner

LAS VEGAS – Matthew Knies is preparing for his third NHL training camp. 

A familiar face won’t be there when the Maple Leafs hit the ice later this month.

Mitch Marner bolted for the Vegas Golden Knights in dramatic fashion this summer after nine headline-grabbing — and sometimes tumultuous — seasons in Toronto. 

Selected fourth overall at the 2015 draft by the team he cheered for as a kid, the star winger put up a career-high 102 points in 2024-25 before the Leafs were forced to ship him out of his hometown in a sign-and-trade deal ahead of free agency.

Marner’s departure following another crushing playoff exit leaves a massive hole in the organization — both on and off the ice. Knies also said it won’t take long for Toronto’s new reality to become the norm.

“It’ll be a little weird just not seeing him in the locker room,” the 22-year-old power forward said Monday at the NHL/NHLPA player media tour. “He did a lot for us. It’ll be a little different.” 

Knies added he wasn’t caught up in what became Marner’s slow march out the door.

“I didn’t really ask him much about it,” said the six-foot-two 227-pound Phoenix product. “Especially during the season, I don’t think anyone was really bothering him. 

“Towards the end of it, we were just trying to figure out, I guess, what his plan was, and I think he found something that worked for him a little bit better.”

The Leafs took last season’s Atlantic Division crown before topping the Ottawa Senators in six games to advance beyond the first round of the playoffs for just the second time in the league’s salary-cap era.

Toronto then fell to the Florida Panthers in a seven-game showdown despite leading that series 2-0 in a matchup that included near-identical 6-1 losses on home ice in Games 5 and 7 against a franchise that would go on to capture its second straight Stanley Cup title.

The Maple Leafs were booed lustily in the third period of their final game of 2024-25 — and Marner’s last appearance in blue and white — on a night that saw pockets of a frustrated fan base toss beers and jerseys onto the Scotiabank Arena ice.

Fan vitriol was directed at Marner after past post-season setbacks, and the anger last May was no different. But Knies said the pressure faced in hockey’s biggest media market is something to embrace.

“You’re put under a microscope in Toronto compared to other places, but I find a way to enjoy it,” said the 57th overall pick in 2021. “It’s fun when the whole city is invested in the team, the whole city wants to win. It’s not possible to deliver every year. 

“The pressure is always building, but I think that comes with a lot of privilege.”

The Leafs will look different up front in 2025-26 thanks to the arrival of Matias Maccelli along with depth options Nicolas Roy — the player Toronto got for Marner in the Vegas swap — and Dakota Joshua as head coach Craig Berube prepares for his second campaign in charge.

“It’s pretty unreplaceable when you’ve got a player like that,” Knies said of Marner. “(The new players) are going to add a different type of aspect to our team that we might have needed.

“I still have a ton of belief.”

Knies, who signed a six-year, US$46.5-million contract extension to remain in Toronto this off-season instead of hitting restricted free agency, knows he will be asked to do more after putting up 29 goals and 29 assists for 58 points on the top line with Marner and captain Auston Matthews.

“(Marner) took up every role, with penalty kill and power play, and played a lot of minutes,” Knies said. “Me getting older and the team investing a little bit more in me now, it obviously shows that I’m going to need to step up.”

It will just be an adjustment — especially early on — with Marner’s No. 16 jersey no longer hanging in his old locker.

“We all wish him the best,” Knies said. “It was sad to see him leave. But it’s a business … you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.” 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 8, 2025.