Brandon Montour opens up on how close he was to joining the Maple Leafs

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Tom Banks
July 18, 2024 (11:52)

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The Toronto Maple Leafs made some big moves on the blue line this summer already, and according to Brandon Montour, they almost had another big deal.

Despite playing in one of the toughest media markets in sports, the Toronto Maple Leafs have a major selling point, as many players in the NHL grew up in Ontario cheering for them. That has led players like John Tavares and Mitch Marner to joining the team, and now, it has been revealed that it almost worked again with Brandon Montour.

"You obviously get that, especially now - just little things of me being up north right now, even my friends and neighbors have caught wind," he said of his being linked to the Leafs. "People obviously watch that, fans of the Leafs and Canada. Just being from here, your friends and family hear it on the radio and the rumors. I guess for myself in the last three or four months was just so focused on trying to win this thing for our team."

Obviously the allure of playing for his home town team is a major draw for Montour, but he would go on to state that while discussions were had, he never quite went as far into the idea of joining Toronto as you would expect from an Ontario kid.

"That was something for my agent to kind of control and work on while my whole focus was on hockey," he explained. "There were conversations - you just look at their roster and look at yourself. For me, I saw the player that could help and it was intriguing in that week. There were talks, but there's a lot that goes into it with family with what they need and what I need, business decisions and such. There were definitely talks - we were excited about it and thought about it, but there were tons of options, and we're obviously grateful for Seattle. We're excited about that experience and excited to get down there and get started, with you could say, a new organization."

Ultimately, Montour chose Seattle, who gave him a whopping 7x7 deal, something that most Maple Leafs fans simply couldn't swallow.

Instead, the team landed three solid names in Jani Hakanpaa, Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and with goals of reaching the Stanley Cup Finals, they would likely prefer the depth over one top name.

Source: Hockey Feed
Brandon Montour reveals how close he was to joining Leafs