Daily Faceoff ranked the Vegas Golden Knights as the top plausible destination in free agency for Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner.

DFO’s Matt Larkin went over nine potential options for Marner to consider and ranked them based on what was the best fit for him and the team in question. His reasoning for why the Golden Knights were the perfect fit was based on their track record of success as well as the potential fit alongside Jack Eichel.

“If Marner simply wants to resume his pursuit of the Stanley Cup, the Golden Knights make plenty of sense as a team that stops at nothing to pursue it and habitually punts picks and prospects to put their best possible team on the ice every year,” he wrote. “On top of taking the Cup in 2022-23, they’ve won 12 playoff series since debuting in 2017-18; you have to reach back to 1992-93 to collect the Leafs’ past 12 playoff series wins.”

As far as drawbacks are concerned, the biggest one is that Vegas currently has only $9.62 million in cap space, which would not be enough to complete a signing, even with Nevada being a tax-free state. Larkin suggested a sign-and-trade as a potential solution to the problem and mentioned players like William Karlsson and Shea Theodore as someone the Leafs may inquire about acquiring.

Of course, the Golden Knights are not the only team on that list that would make sense for Marner if he were indeed to depart his boyhood team in less than a month from now. All three California teams were featured in the rankings; the Los Angeles Kings being the highest ranked at #2, the Anaheim Ducks finishing right behind them in third, and the San Jose Sharks were down in eighth place. Other teams that have been popular mentions as potential fits for Marner in the Carolina Hurricanes and Chicago Blackhawks finished neck and neck in fourth and fifth place, respectively.

It is worth mentioning that the Leafs were included in the rankings and finished in last place at ninth overall. Larkin highlighted that it wouldn’t be unprecedented for a marquee free agent to opt to stay with their current team, as Steven Stamkos did the same thing in 2016.

While it’s far from a foregone conclusion that Marner will be leaving, the reasons for the fit not working are simply to do with the Leafs need to shake things up and the player is likely in need of a fresh start.

“He’s lived his dream as a local boy since they drafted him fourth overall in 2015, but the pressure on him and his family has been smothering, and it’s possible the Leafs permanently burned the bridge when they asked him to waive his no-movement clause for a trade to the Carolina Hurricanes in March,” Larkin wrote. “We can’t say 100 percent that Marner’s time with Toronto is done. But everything we’re hearing at Daily Faceoff suggests it’s almost certainly the case. Call it at least 90 percent that Marner signs with a new team in July.”