Mitch Marner and Jani Hakanpaa were the only Maple Leafs to be announced to any of the four teams competing at the 4 Nations tournament in February after Auston Matthews and William Nylander were named as one of the initial six players for Team USA and Team Sweden, respectively. Marner will be suiting up for Team Canada at the first-of-its-kind tournament in the new year.

Ahead of Wednesday night’s game against the Nashville Predators, Marner joined Sportsnet’s Shawn McKenzie to discuss what it means to suit up for his country in any capacity.

“It’s always special, something you dream of as a kid and grew up watching with your family, at home through Christmas and through the Olympics,” Marner said. “It’s always an honour and a privilege.”

It’s not Marner’s first time representing Team Canada, suiting up for them at the 2016 World Junior Championships and the 2016-17 World Championships.

Marner is leading the Maple Leafs in points to start the 2024-25 season, with 33 and nine goals in 24 games. He stepped up in a major way while Matthews was injured throughout most of November and it’s led to lots of team success, with the Maple Leafs heading into Wednesday night’s game having won five of their last six games and nine of their last 11.

Marner has been a favourite of Craig Berube to use in all situations, including the power play and the penalty kill. He was asked if he takes pride in being somebody the coach can put that much trust into as the team’s leader in time on ice.

“I take a lot of pride in that, that’s something you want as a player,” Marner said before directing the attention back to the team. “Like I always speak about though, it’s always a five or four-man unit out there, so lots of kudos to the guys around me. We’ve been working well together and will keep going.”

Among the other players in conversations for 4 Nations Cup rosters are both goaltenders in Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll for Team USA, John Tavares and Chris Tanev for Team Canada.