Crazy as it is, it has taken more than thirty seasons for a Toronto Maple Leafs individual player point streak to make headlines once more.
With his goal in the dying minutes of the Toronto Maple Leafs win over the San Jose Sharks, Mitch Marner ensured it became a talking point once more, joining Darryl Sittler and Eddie Olczyk as joint-holders of the longest individual point streak in franchise history.
All this on a team loaded with plenty of other offensive talent and having been split from his line mates that combined to form one of the league’s best overall lines last season.
Factor in that he sees upwards of 21 minutes ice-time (per Natural Stat Trick) including some league-leading numbers among nominal top-line forwards on the penalty-kill.
Mitch Marner has well and truly cemented his status with the Toronto Maple Leafs franchise and certainly the longer he remains with the team, the higher the likelihood he one day joins Sittler on Legends Row.
All of this on a team that features the likes of Auston Matthews, William Nylander and John Tavares – none of whom are slouches in the offensive zone.
None of those names listed have been able to match up to Mitch Marner’s point-scoring this season and although they’re all boasting strong totals themselves, Mitch stands head and shoulders above.
There have been suggestions which are knocked down routinely as ‘crazy talk’ that Marner deserves more recognition in Hart Trophy voting year-to-year.
If he can obliterate this record by going 5 or 6 more games with a point, you’d have to imagine maybe there’ll be a little more noise there.
In the time span of this streak, the Toronto Maple Leafs have gone from ‘fire the coach’ to a very comfortable second-place in the Atlantic Division; not bad for a winger once regarded as somewhat of a question mark as to whether he could make an NHL impact.
Now he’s added another line alongside Sittler and Olczyk to the Toronto Maple Leafs franchise record books; a feat he and his teammates must continue to strive for at the pointy end of the season.
Looking back at the three point streaks, it’s fair to say they all evolved somewhat differently for three very different players in three very different eras: