Hockey analyst Jeff Veillette pushed back this week on the fact that Mitch Marner faced harsh criticism during his time with the team. 

Veillette pointed to William Nylander as proof that Marner's experience was not the only time it happened. This comes just a year after Marner left the Toronto Maple Leafs for the Vegas Golden Knights, while Nylander remains with the Leafs.

For years, Marner was viewed as a cornerstone in Toronto, especially because he held through repeated playoff disappointments and two drawn-out contract negotiations. Veillette argued that Nylander went through the same kind of pressure.

"This is the other thing I keep coming back to when people say Marner faced unique fire," Veillette wrote in a post on X on July 22. "Nylander signed the same ELC, had a worse second contract dispute, he's been a polarising Leaf for like eight years now, and he aloofly wanders the streets with a smile on his face and never complains."

Both players signed similar three-year entry-level deals as first-round picks. Nylander was No. 8 in 2014, and Marner was No. 4 in 2015, and each of them later hit restricted free agency. 

Nylander's second contract came in after his deal expired in July 2018, and the standoff that followed dragged well into the season, nothing like what Marner went through.

Nylander missed almost two months of games that period. He did not even sign his six-year deal, worth an average of $6.9 million a season, until less than an hour before the December 1 deadline. Marner never missed a single game in either of his two contract disputes with Toronto.

Nylander, ever since then, went on to sign an even larger extension, an eight-year, $92 million deal in January 2024.

Veillette pushed back on the narrative surrounding Marner. He argued that Nylander faced years of criticism, contract drama, and fan scrutiny without speaking out, making Marner's experience seem less exceptional.

Mitch Marner's long journey out of Toronto

Marner's exit happened after years of tension around his contract situation.

As discussed in an article by SportsNet, his agent, Darren Ferris, was well involved with it. From talks surrounding his offer sheet involving the Columbus Blue Jackets during Marner's 2019 negotiation to renewed Blue Jackets interest in his second contract in 2025.

After Toronto lost to Florida in the second round of the 2025 playoffs, Marner was booed by home fans. The previous season, he had scored a career-high 102 points. Still, the criticism poured over his production continued to follow him. 

He signed an eight-year, $96 million contract with the Leafs on June 30, 2025, before being immediately traded to Vegas for center Nicolas Roy.

Marner left the team as the sixth all-time leading scorer, with 741 points in 657 games across nine seasons. He is now in the first year of his new deal, which is worth $12 million a season, with the Golden Knights.

What's your take on the Marner-Nylander comparison? Let us know down in the comments below.

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Written by

Aadhya Nalla

Edited by

Soheli Tarafdar