One Marner Decision Helped Set Vegas, Carolina on Cup Path

Mitch Marner’s choice echoes far beyond one locker room, and this story traces how one move helped tilt the postseason map toward Vegas and Carolina. In this league, a single contract decision can ripple through multiple contender rooms, reshaping who has the firepower and who is left improvising. The connective tissue between those two Final-bound clubs starts with a choice that changed more than one team’s summer.