Mitch Marner donates customized 'bite suit' to local police K-9 unit

As we continue to crawl closer to the start of NHL training camps, the need to find some news — any news — about Mitch Marner has become somewhat of a daily ritual.

No, we’re no closer to him signing a deal that we were yesterday, according to all useable resources, but that doesn’t mean the Toronto Maple Leafs star hasn’t been keeping busy.

The 22-year-old made a donation to the Durham Regional Police K-9 unit recently, and today they showed off the specially designed “apprehension suit” — colloquially know as a “bite suit” — donated by Marner’s charity Marner Assist.

The specially designed suit is made up to look like a blue-and-white Maple Leafs uniform, complete with the “Marner 16” nameplate and number on the back.

“That’s pretty cool what Mitch did for us,” said Det. const. Wes King told Global News. “Let’s do something for him in our little world, and let’s make our suit look like a Mitch Marner jersey.”

These padded training suits are a part of police dog training, letting the dogs go on the attack without the risk of hurting the person getting paid to throw on the pads. According to officers, Durham Regional Police go through about two suits per year, each costing roughly $3,000.

The video of a police dog attacking someone dressed like Marner was easy fodder for twitter jokes, but the reality behind the scene is just a young player making a thoughtful donation to a local police department.

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