LEAFS NOTES: Gilmour-Marner connection now long distance

National Post

21 hours ago

From the moment a young Mitch Marner stepped on the ice as a Maple Leaf, the Doug Gilmour comparisons began.
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Of similar height and weight, both 100-point playmaking OHL juniors, strong defensively, hard to hit, they were also linked by sweater No. 93, which Mitch wore in London in homage to his father Paul's favourite Leaf. In his current role as a club ambassador, Gilmour saw Marner up close many times.
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'I've been a big fan of Mitch's from the very beginning,' Gilmour told the Toronto Sun on Wednesday. 'One of my favourite players to watch. He's come a long way.'
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While Marner trails only Gilmour in franchise post-season assists — 60 to 50 — it was playoff intangibles that clearly separate them. The Gilmour-led Leafs of the 1990s played in two conference finals and eight different series in four years, while Marner never got past the second-round in nine seasons.
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It's a big reason Gilmour — and everyone else in these parts — will have to watch Marner from afar as a Vegas Golden Knight. Seeing him wear a mustard-toned 93 — digits he couldn't have in Toronto as it was retired for Gilmour — will take some getting used to.
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'It's going to be hard days for Leaf fans to see him,' predicted the 62-year-old Gilmour. 'He's a guy that can play everywhere in your lineup: Power play, penalty killing and he can get you 100 points.
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'But it's the business, right? And sometimes the business is not fun. Hey, I played for seven different teams (St. Louis, Calgary, Toronto, New Jersey, Chicago, Buffalo and Montreal). My young daughter would be worried sometimes and say 'Dad, they say you're no good', but I'd tell her 'Somebody else will always want you.' '
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Marner left for Vegas with an eight-year, $96 million US deal, agreed to in his final hours as a Maple Leaf. But barring a Leafs-Knights Stanley Cup final, he will be back in town only once a season.
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Players will insist the most under-rated members of a team are its equipment managers.
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'One hundred per cent,' said Gilmour. 'You just look at all the hours they put in during the day. And at night, when we'd get off a plane and able to go right to bed, they're on their way to the rink to get our stuff ready.'
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It was a jolt to many Leafs and former NHLers to learn a decade ago that Scott McKay, Toronto's long-time equipment man in the Pat Quinn era, had a cancer diagnosis. He has survived, but the battle continues and friends want to help him raise funds and awareness in a big way.
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On Thursday, Gilmour, Curtis Joseph, Shayne Corson, Brad May and Raffi Torres will reveal Street Hockey For The Cure, to benefit the Canadian Cancer Society, the Scott McKay Foundation and the St. Michael's Hospital Foundation. Proceeds of the Sept. 13-14 tournament near the grounds of the Hotel X at Exhibition Place will go to reducing the financial burden of cancer patients throughout treatment, such as the Wheels For Hope transportation program.