A three-way trade involving pending free agent Mitch Marner has officially been confirmed

GM Brad Treliving and the Toronto Maple Leafs may have been the catalyst that is giving Mitch Marner a reason to leave his hometown team.

Earlier on in the season, before the trade deadline, Brad Treliving was working the phones, and we could've seen Mitch Marner in a Vegas Golden Knights jersey had it gone through.

The deal would've included the Carolina Hurricanes, but neither of the teams involved in the trade had the assets to finalize the deal.

James Mirtle just confirmed it, and it would've been a blockbuster.

The deal, which we heard about him refusing to waive his NMC for, in exchange for Mikko Rantanen, was the trade that fell through and likely caused the fractured feelings between him and the Maple Leafs.

The deal between Toronto and Vegas would've seen Mitch Marner sent to the Vegas Golden Knights in return for defenseman Shea Theodore. But the team wasn't interested in parting ways with one of their best defenseman in the lineup.

Theodore is primarily an offensive-defenseman and would give the Maple Leafs firepower missing from someone like Morgan Rielly. Nevertheless, the deal fell through as Theodore would sign a 7-year, $52 million extension with GM Kelly McCrimmon.

This apparently gained traction at the beginning of the year in October, according to NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman, but the transaction fell through, much like the other deal with the Hurricanes.

Now, it appears Marner will take his talents south of the border, as we've heard the Florida Panthers are one of his desired destinations in the NHL.

Marner's 6-year, $10.9 million deal expires at the end of the year and is a pending UFA.

He'll start a bidding war if he walks into free agency without a new contract.