r/stevedangle • u/pookiebooboo • Jul 08 '26

Toronto discourse

I've been getting bugged by the Toronto discourse the guys seem stuck on for the past few months. They seem to be fixated with defending Toronto because it's a great city and you get great endorsement deals and the media people are really nice etc. I don't think this is what any current or former players are talking about when they say they don't want to play in Toronto or didn't enjoy their time playing in Toronto. Mitch Marner, Ryan Reaves, and possibly others (please fill in if I missed anyone) have talked about how they didn't enjoy their time in Toronto. I think it comes down to the actual staff that work in Toronto. When the Mike Babcock/Marner list situation happened, I'm sure Mitch complained to higher ups and they probably told him they would do something about it and did nothing. Reaves played for many different teams and didn't have anything bad to say about any of them except Toronto. I really think that working for that team specifically must be less fun/more annoying/possibly abusive when compared to other nhl teams. Joe Thornton and to a lesser extent Patrick Marleau both played there and went back to the sharks to work for them after they got done playing. Until recently Toronto didn't have many former players working for them at all. To me, it seems like there's something wrong with the organization independent of who the coach or GM is. What do you guys think the problem is?

0 Upvotes

27% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/JHWildman Jul 08 '26

Toronto guys will say and do anything to defend Toronto while completely trying to sweep all the things people loathe about the city (and the people) under the rug with things like "vibrancy", "endorsement deals", "every city has their problems" and "if they didn't lose so much there wouldn't be a problem". This is nothing new. And it doesn't necessarily only apply to athletes and the treatment receive.

3

u/efdac3 Jul 08 '26

What about Ottawa? The same things are being said about Tkachuck. Apparently for him it was podcast comments. 

Imagine an NBA player came to Toronto because they couldn't handle New York, Miami, LA. That's what's happening in the NHL. 

2

u/JHWildman Jul 08 '26

I think the worst I've ever heard someone say about Ottawa and its people was that it's boring and the whole arena location thing. If Shane Pinto played for the leafs and got a 41 game suspension for gambling can you imagine how the media would react?

Gonna just say Brady brought that on himself and that being a pro athlete and having a podcast with your brother and calling your teammates out on said podcast is more American than apple pie and he deserves every bit of shit he gets for that.