Mitch Marner was nearly traded to the Carolina Hurricanes.
At around the time of the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline, Marner was asked by Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving to waive his no-movement clause to facilitate a potential trade to the Carolina Hurricanes for Mikko Rantanen.
Marner ultimately vetoed the trade and did not waive his no-trade clause.
The superstar forward finally explained why he refused to go to Carolina, but it was nothing personal against the Hurricanes organization.
“The last two years there were a lot of rumors going on, a lot of different stuff swirling around. You didn’t know what was going to happen,” Marner said via NHL.com. “Then the whole Carolina thing comes up in the middle of the season. It’s a bit of an awkward one. My wife was six or seven months pregnant, we really didn’t want to be a deadline player.
“I would have had to leave and go back to Toronto because my wife wasn’t coming down with me, so I was moving into Carolina myself if I did that. The logistics of it and everything, it just didn’t make sense and then from that point on, we told [the Maple Leafs] we were committed to [Toronto] and we were going to play it all out.”
Once this blockbuster deal fell through, the Hurricanes traded to the Dallas Stars in exchange for Logan Stankoven, a 2026 first-round and third-round pick, a 2027 third-rounder and a 2028 first-rounder.
Marner was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights in July and signed an eight-year, $96 million contract.
