Matthews and Nylander Share Thoughts on Marner Trade Rumours

After Marner took a lot of heat after his measly performance in round one against Boston in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, his teammates have stood up for him.

All three of Marner, Matthews and Nylander have spent eight years together. They've been through the horrific Toronto media for nearly a decade and have gone through the trenches together.

That's not an easy feat.

Colorado had to move on from guys like Ryan O'Reilly, Paul Stastny, and Matt Duchene in order to build around their current Stanley Cup-winning core.

The Toronto Maple Leafs might have to take a page out of the same playbook the Avalanche have.

While Marner is highly skilled and has an element to his game that is lethal and most players lack nowadays, he is not physical enough to drive and win in the playoffs for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Matthews was the first of the two to defend his teammate Mitch Marner. He stated that he's learned that there's always a scapegoat, a narrative. Further in the quote, he notes that Mitch is a great teammate, competitor and friend.

See the full quote below:

Nylander added a lot of the same, but his unique spin to the comments Matthews made.

See the full quote below:

It's clear both Matthews and Nylander understand the media criticisms but also are willing to go to bat for their teammate. Marner is this season's whipping boy while Nylander was last year.

As read on: Maple Leafs Daily
Maple Leafs Daily Marner Matthew Nylander Media