The Toronto Maple Leafs traded Mitch Marner to the Vegas Golden Knights after nine seasons. Marner had strong regular-season numbers but often struggled in the playoffs. On the FirstUp podcast, Matthew Cauz claimed that the Leafs needed to move on from the 28-year-old after 'nine years of ineptitude' in big games."It's so weird," Cauz said. "It's just the nature of the game, and it's also the nature of nine years of ineptitude in big games that for the Maple Leafs to go further in the playoffs, they actually have to subtract someone as talented as Marner."It speaks to whatever has just gone wrong with Marner consistently over the years. And by the way, not just him, Morgan Riley, Auston Matthews, John Tavares, William Nylander, all of them. It's not about Marner, it's about a collection of all of them together."Cauz thinks that the Leafs have always been full of skillful players but lacked balance. The Toronto franchise needs to realize that you need a little bit of everything to succeed in the playoffs. Cauz also stressed on the disparate nature of the playoffs from the regular season.Mitch Marner signed an eight-year, $96 million contract before the trade. He had 102 points last season, but only two playoff goals. The Leafs got Nicolas Roy in return, a reliable center with playoff experience.Cauz explained that having too many similar players was part of the problem. He believes playoff hockey needs different roles, not just scoring."You need a little bit of everything," Cauz said. "But it also speaks to the nature of hockey playoffs. Like, that's part of this. Like, this is about the fact that you need ... What you do to dominate in the regular season doesn't translate in the playoffs."What the Maple Leafs have done in these wonderful regular seasons has never translated. And the way to fix it is to be okay with not having Marner, an incredibly talented player, but the makeup just never worked."Cauz believes that the trade might help the Leafs become a more complete team.Mitch Marner's reasons for joining the Golden KnightsMitch Marner said that leaving Toronto was tough, but joining Vegas is exciting. He liked the team’s winning culture and playoff success. Vegas has made the playoffs in seven of the last eight seasons. They won the Stanley Cup in 2023 and hope to contend again."This was a spot very high on my list, we wanted to come here, and I went back to my agent and said I’m open to doing this," Marner said, via NHL.com. "We thought about going to free agency but this was a place I wanted to be, didn’t want to lose that opportunity and join this hockey team."Mitch Marner said he wants to win and felt Vegas gave him the best chance.