You're conflating Romans with Italians. They are not the same. Italians are mongrels. They are the result of what happened to Italy after the fall of Rome.
Marchand is a guy you hate when he's not on your team. He would be an amazing Leaf. He's also made to be in the NHLs biggest hockey market. Guy LOVES the attention and thriving on it. This is not a player who wants to play in the sunbelt and never get recognized.