Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner opened up to former teammate Connor Carrick about the well-documented list incident during his rookie season under head coach Mike Babcock

Marner was asked by Carrick on his podcast, posted to YouTube Wednesday, what the greatest learning opportunity in his Leafs career has been. Marner jokingly pointed to the list incident.

"Well, I think one is to never grade your teammates on their work ethic in practice," Marner said. "That one is definitely the top."

The story, which took place during the 2016-17 season, became public shortly after Babcock was fired by the Maple Leafs in November. Marner later confirmed the incident took place, stating to TSN that “it was surprising” Babcock elected to share his list with the players he had listed as having the worst work ethic.

Marner reiterated to Carrick that he appreciated the players he listed at the bottom of the list, such as Tyler Bozak, James van Riemsdyk and Nazem Kadri, not holding it against him. He also said he believed Babcock shared the list in attempt to inspire the veteran players.

"Obviously I was a rookie. I was really young. I was nervous. I didn't know what to do, so I did it. Next thing I knew it got reported to the team," Marner said. "Bozie, JVR, and Naz – those three are some of the best guys I've ever played with. They've been great throughout my career, talking to them and stuff like that. It was hilarious. At first, they were jiving me about it, because I didn’t know it was gonna get shown to them. I think [Babcock's] lesson was trying to show the older guys that I'm a young guy and I'm looking up to these three and that's what was happening."

In a text message exchange in November with TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger, Babcock said he apologized to Marner after the incident.

“I was trying to focus on work ethic with Mitch – focusing on role models – it ended up not being a good idea. I apologized at the time,” Babcock said.

Marner, 23, had 16 goals and 67 points in 59 games before the NHL season was paused.