Mitch Marner’s first season in Vegas was quiet by his standards — 80 points, a move to center, and a team-high 22 points after the Olympic break. But the regular season was never the point. The Golden Knights acquired Marner on an eight-year, $96 million deal last September to change one thing: his playoff reputation.

In 70 career playoff games with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Marner has 13 goals and 63 points. He never advanced past the second round. In Games 5-7 from 2019-25, he had zero goals and seven assists. The criticism, especially from a Toronto market that expected the hometown kid to deliver, followed him until his final game with the Leafs — a 6-1 Game 7 loss to the eventual champion Florida Panthers in which he had two shots and was a minus-2.

“You just can’t care about it,” Marner said. “Everyone has their own opinions. They want to say what they want to say. Nothing you can do about it. You just got to focus on yourself and what you can do.”

Marner said he avoids social media and the news to stay locked in. “I’m just trying not to read into it,” he said. “I’m just trying to focus on what I can do on the ice.”

General manager Kelly McCrimmon downplayed the narrative. “I think some of that stuff matters more to the critics than it does to people,” he said. “You worry about winning. You just really put your attention to that. Is Mitch Marner excited about the Stanley Cup Playoffs? I’m sure he’s excited as hell. All of our players are. It’s that time of year.”

Coach John Tortorella has already put Marner on a line with Jack Eichel and Mark Stone for Sunday’s Game 1 against the Utah Mammoth. “Mitch is a great hockey player,” Tortorella said. “He’s a complete player. Very important guy. One of the top players in our league. He does a lot of things for us.”

Marner finished the season with fewer than a point per game for the first time since 2017-18, but McCrimmon noted that points don’t tell the whole story. “It’s not all points,” he said. “There’s just so many things in the game over the course of the night that are so special in terms of what he does with his hockey sense and skill.”

“It’s always a challenge to get to the playoffs,” Marner said. “You make it in, and then the real work begins. I’m just excited to get in there with this group.”

How loud the volume gets may only be determined by how he performs in the postseason. “It’s not going to be easy,” Marner said. “There’s going to be lots of ups and downs. We just got to make sure that we’re there for one another and have each other’s backs.”