Toronto Maple Leafs winger Mitch Marner has been quarantining in the city as the NHL season remains on pause and the world deals with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Marner joined Gino Reda on 7-Eleven That’s Hockey and said that he invited goaltender Frederik Andersen to live with him as they wait to see what happens with the season, but the netminder chose to go to Arizona instead and stay with teammate Auston Matthews, a move he supports.

“I was talking to Freddie actually, before he left, he was thinking about staying here and I told him if he did he could come live with me” Marner told TSN. “Then I think it was two or three days later he sent me a Snapchat of a palm tree, somewhere nice and warm and I’m like, I assume you went down to Arizona. That’s great for them two to be together, those two guys have built a really strong relationship in the last couple of years and they are both the backbone of our team.”

Marner has built a good following on his Twitch channel, Marns_16 and says that he has taken some cues from a few other gamers on using the channel and interacting with fans.

“NICKMERCS is the one guy I watch a lot when he’s online and the other one is TimTheTatman those two guys and then NoahJ is another guy I watch play a lot,” said Marner. “Just the way they interact with their fans, how they talk to them and also how good they are at the games.”

While the Maple Leafs do get their time together playing video games, Marner says their interest in a particular game tends to drop, sometimes making it harder for them to connect in that way.

“Our team goes through hot and cold streaks with gaming,” said Marner. “If a new game comes out we’ll play it for a little bit and then eventually guys start dying off and not playing it as much. Really right now I’ve only played with (Hyman) and (Gauthier). I don’t know if Freddie (Andersen) took his Playstation down (to Arizona), I think he did with Auston, but I haven’t played with them two yet.”

Marner has had many chances to show off his moves on the ice, having scored 83 goals and added 208 assists during his 300 games with the Maple Leafs. Earlier in the year he also had the chance to polish up his dance moves thanks to some help from Justin Bieber.

Auston Matthews recently told TSN’s James Duthie a story about a few members of the team learning to dance to one of Bieber’s new songs and Marner says the story he told was 100 per cent accurate.

“We were all hanging out there,” said Marner. “It was a week or two after his Yummy song dropped. We all went down to his basement, it’s kind of a gym, but it also has a big mirror so when he’s at home he can work on his dancing. We went down there and he started teaching us the dance and probably after the fourth or fifth step, he was about to teach us the next step and Auston and (Tyson Barrie) looked at him and said we’re done.”

“I wanted to learn it, just to have it and I ended up getting the dance down and the routine. I have a video of it on my phone, we’ll see one day maybe I’ll post it. It was a cool moment for sure, something that is pretty cool to have on your phone.”

As for the possibility of that video surfacing one day, Marner says he might just provide an opportunity for that to happen through his charity.

“Maybe we’ll do something with the Marner Assist Fund,” said Marner. “If we get a certain amount of money, then we can get the post up.”

The Marner Assist Fund has been very active in the fight against COVID-19 as the Maple Leafs winger tries to do his part to help during the global pandemic.

“It’s obviously a very tough time, you give a ton of respect to the people that are still working and still doing the stuff that a lot of other people I don’t think would dare to do,” said Marner. “The firefighters, the police officers, the delivery people, the Uber Eats deliveries, any kind of people that are out there risking their lives to feed, help, save people, it’s unbelievable. We just want to try to find a way to make sure we keep finding ways to give back and help out them and their needs.”

“It was great of TRUE Hockey to help me out as well and get some prizes in there to get the bidding up higher and we can get more money donated. At the end of the day we’re all playing for the same team and that's making sure we conquer this COVID-19 and it’s going to take every single one of us to do it. “