Toronto Maple Leafs right wing Mitch Marner is a free agent at the end of this season, and there's a real possibility he won't be back with the franchise where he's spent the first nine years of his NHL career.

As such, there's a possibility that Wednesday night's 6–1 defeat in Game 5 against the Florida Panthers was his final home game at Scotiabank Arena. When asked about that by reporters after the game, Marner made clear that he's focused on Game 6, rather than his future with the organization.

"No, no thoughts of that all," Marner said when asked about Wednesday's game potentially being his last home game in Toronto. "Like I said, reset, it's obviously not the spot we want to be in, but you can't do anything about it. We know it's going to be a roller coaster of a ride, we know it's not going to be easy. We've got to have the mindset now of going into Florida, take it shift by shift and go and win a hockey game."

Marner has been one of the most dominant regular-season performers in the league throughout his career, but things haven't clicked in the postseason. He registered just one shot on goal in Wednesday's loss and has two total shots on goal in the team's last four games. He has four points in the series, but has largely vanished over the last few games, all three of which resulted in Maple Leafs losses.

If that was in fact Marner's last home game in Toronto, it certainly wasn't the way he'd have been hoping to go out. But he made clear he's focused on the upcoming Game 6 in Sunrise, Fla. A win on Friday would bring the series back to Scotiabank Arena for Game 7, which is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, May 18.

More on Sports Illustrated


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mitch Marner Addresses Possibility Game 5 Blowout Was His Last Home Game for Maple Leafs.

Test hyperlink for boilerplate