Mitch Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs had one of the all time best stretches in 2022 and no one seems to have noticed.
Maybe it’s because they didn’t make a deep playoff run, maybe it’s because it’s overshadows by Auston Matthews 60 goal MVP worthy season. Regardless, Mitch Marner is currently the NHL’s most underrated superstar.
In 2015 the Toronto Maple Leafs lost the “McEichel” draft lottery getting neither the first nor second overall pick. This meant they would select neither of the highly touted superstars, Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel. However with their 4th overall pick the Leafs would strike gold with one of the absolute best players in today’s NHL, Mitch Marner.
At the 2022 NHL awards he was voted best right winger in the league and was placed along teammate Auston Matthews on the NHL 1st All Star Team. This is his second time achieving such a feat but this time is different.
Toronto Maple Leafs and Mitch Marner
Mitch Marner wasn’t just the best right winger in the league. In the 2022 regular season, Marner became the second-best player in the league behind only Matthews. Upon returning from COVID protocol on Jan 15th, 2022, he would go on to score a league leading 76 points in only 46 games.
This ranks him second in points-per-game behind only Auston Matthews who was voted MVP by the media and his peers in 2022 and was awarded the Hart trophy and Ted Lindsay award. Marner also led the league in 5v5 scoring in that time with 51 Points. Which again, puts him right behind Matthews in 5v5 points per game.
What separates him further from a contemporary like Johnny Gaudreau is his exceptional defensive stats and time on the penalty kill. Gaudreau is sporting a measly five hits and six blocked shots since Jan 15th, while Marner has an impressive 63 and 19 respectively. (All stats from Naturalstattrick.com) .
Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews form the greatest duo in the NHL, bar none. With incomparable 5v5 numbers, they do everything Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl do offensively except they don’t need the other team down a man to do it. On top of that they are the only top tier duo not named Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron who can actually play defense.
According to the Dom Luszczyszyn model at the Athletic, Marner has the third best GSVA in the NHL behind only Matthews and McDavid. GSVA stand for Game Score Value Added and is an analytics model that projects how many wins a player is worth. Marner is valued at 5.2 wins which is higher than both Nathan Mackinnon at 5.0 and Leon Draisatl at 4.3.
We can all appreciate Auston Matthews for the MVP caliber player that he is. However It’s time to start appreciating that not just one, but two of the leagues absolute best players currently play for the Toronto Maple Leafs.