Brandon Montour reveals how close he was to joining Leafs

He was one of the biggest pieces of the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers blue line, and he was able to parlay his championship effort into a major contract with the Seattle Kraken. But just how close was Brandon Montour to joining the division rival Toronto Maple Leafs instead? 

A native of Ohsweken, Ontario, Montour naturally heard chatter from his friends and family in the area about potentially joining Toronto when his contract with the Panthers was up. And as he put it during an interview with TSN, it's not something he was surprised by. 

"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." 

As far as the contract negotiations were concerned, Montour indicated that while he leaves the heavy lifting up to his agent, there were conversations with the Maple Leafs before ultimately deciding to ink a seven-year deal with Seattle instead. 

"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." 

Despite missing out on Montour, the Leafs did sign a pair of Panthers players from their championship squad in defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and goaltender Anthony Stolarz. 

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