Mitch Marner and Frederik Andersen are about to meet again, but this time there will be no practice ice, no Toronto dressing room and no easy conversations after games. The former Maple Leafs teammates will be on opposite sides Tuesday when Marner’s Vegas Golden Knights face Andersen’s Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of the 2026 Stanley Cup Final at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, N.C.
That is the sort of matchup that lands with extra force because Marner and Andersen know each other so well. Marner said Andersen was one of the first people in the NHL who was open with him when he arrived in Toronto in 2016, inviting him over, taking him to dinners and going out to eat after games. “He was just one of the guys who brought me in and made me feel really comfortable since Day 1,” Marner said.
The timing only sharpens the interest. Marner enters the Final leading the postseason with 21 points in 16 games, including seven goals and 14 assists, and he is plus-12, which leads Vegas. Andersen has been just as central to Carolina’s run, playing every minute and going 12-1 with a 1.41 goals-against average and a.931 save percentage. For both players, the Final is not just a stage — it is the first chance to decide a championship while carrying the weight of their own playoff runs.
Their history goes beyond friendship. Andersen and Marner faced each other in practice every day during Andersen’s five-season stint with the Maple Leafs from 2016 to 2021, and Toronto never won a playoff series in that span. Andersen later joined the Hurricanes as a free agent in 2021, and the two stayed in contact after their paths split. Andersen said it has been fun to keep up with Marner, adding that he has seen the winger grow up from the very young player he first met into a family man with a son.
There is a small piece of hockey life still hanging in the background of this reunion. During the 2020 All-Star Game in St. Louis, Andersen unveiled a custom-made mask with Marner and Auston Matthews on the sides, a gesture that fit the easy familiarity between them. Now that familiarity is part of the Final itself, with Andersen standing between Marner and the first Stanley Cup title of his career. Game 1 will tell whether that old connection helps one of them or simply makes the other’s job harder.
