It’s the end of an era in Toronto and Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews is feeling it.

It’s the end of an era in Toronto and Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews is feeling it. Just before the opening of Free Agency, pending free agent forward Mitch Marner officially became a member of the Vegas Golden Knights in a sign and trade.

Toronto moved Marner to Vegas in exchange for forward Nicolas Roy. As part of the deal, Marner then signed an eight-year, $96 million contract that will keep him in Vegas through the 2032-33 season.

With Marner officially out of Toronto, Matthews did seem to have much to say about his close friend’s decision. He only reposted in his Instagram stories what the Maple Leafs’ social media team had previously shared in a post thanking Marner.

“For the nine years of magic you brought on and off the ice 🪄Thank you, Mitchy!”

However, Matthews was quite vocal about the possibility of losing Marner back in May when the Maple Leafs held their exit interviews after being eliminated for the postseason in Round 2 by the Florida Panthers.

“Yeah, it’s tough. I mean, he’s a brother. He’s such a good teammate, friend,” Matthews said .

“We’re extremely close, he’s extremely close with a lot of guys on the team. He’s a big part of our team and has been a big part of our team.

Unfortunately, that’s kind of the nature of the business.

People come and go and I don’t know, he has the right to make his own decision. Obviously, we all love him very much and like I said, he’s an amazing person and an amazing teammate.”

But now that it’s really, Matthews probably preferred to keep his true feelings to himself. His repost however got fans in Toronto talking.

Marner was surely more emotional than Matthews in his first Golden Knights’ press conference, saying:

“I never thought it would really come to this day. Stuff went a little north, a little south. So grateful to play (in Toronto) nine years. But happy to be part of this team.”

Marner leaves his hometown team after playing 657 regular-season games, tallying 221 goals, adding 520 assists for a total of 741 points.