SAN JOSE – Ryan Reaves will play against a group of close friends on Thursday night when the San Jose Sharks face the Vegas Golden Knights in their season-opening game at SAP Center.
That list of Golden Knights players includes winger Mitch Marner, with whom Reaves was teammates for a season and a half with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Marner, after nine seasons playing for his hometown team, was signed by the Leafs to an eight-year, $96 million contract on June 30 and then traded to the Golden Knights for forward Nicolas Roy.
Before Marner, a new father, finalized his decision, he spoke with Reaves and others about the Golden Knights organization and what family life would be like in the city, best known for its gambling and nightlife.
“I just told him my experience,” said Reaves, who spent three-plus seasons with the Golden Knights from 2018 to 2021. “I really enjoyed my time in Vegas. The city treats you really well. The fans treat you well, and the owner treats the team very well. The lifestyle, you can’t beat it. It’s Las Vegas.”
Reaves, who signed a three-year contract with the Leafs as a free agent in 2023 and was traded to the Sharks in July, also offered support to Marner after he endured a toxic final year in Toronto.
The Maple Leafs finished atop the Atlantic Division last season. They advanced to the second round of the playoffs but lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in seven games.
Marner was roundly criticized for his performance in that series, particularly in Game 5, when his neutral zone turnover and less-than-stellar backcheck resulted in a Jesper Boqvist goal and a 3-0 Florida lead in the second period.
After a career-best 102-point regular season, Marner had just one assist in the final four games of the series against the Panthers. In nine playoff appearances, Marner and the Leafs core managed to get past the first round just twice while never reaching the Eastern Conference final.
Marner told TSN in August that soon after he returned home after that game, he received a message from his father-in-law.
“(He) goes, ‘I just want to let you know, we’ve got people sending us screenshots of a guy posting your address online saying that if people want to come pay us a visit and say, you know, their goodbyes, in a quotation way, here’s the address.’ And it was a little tough, obviously,” Marner said. “I mean, we kind of dealt with it for the last two years in a way. The market’s very passionate. They love the team. I mean, I know it. I was born and raised there. I’ve been a part of the Leafs Nation for a long time.
“But, yeah, when your family’s safety comes into question, especially having a new son, I don’t think it’s acceptable.”
“We had people throwing stuff in his yard,” Marner’s agent, Darren Ferris, told the 100% Hockey podcast. “There was another occasion where there was a death threat, and we traced it to a kid in Oakville, Ont.”
Marner had a security guard around his house for two weeks after that playoff series ended.
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“I’ve spoken to him many times about that, when he was having a hard time with it at the end of last season,” Reaves said. “I think what people forget in Toronto is Mitch did nothing but give that city his best for (nine) years, the best hockey he possibly could have put on the ice. He didn’t have a good playoff one year; he didn’t have a good stretch. Well, every player goes through that, and the team isn’t made up of one superstar, right? You’ve got to win as a team.
“So when they place blame on one guy, I think it’s unfair. He poured his heart and soul into that city. I’m not saying every fan was like that, because obviously, 90% of the fans really appreciate everything he did there. But to (crap) on a guy for what he did there, sometimes it pushes you away and sometimes you want to see something new. Sometimes you’ve just been doing the same thing over and over, and you just want to try something new.”
Now that Marner is out from under the microscope in Toronto, Reaves said he believes his former teammates, “is going to thrive.”