#9. Mitchell Marner
Stats with the Leafs:
Regular Season:
Games Played: 80
Goals: 30
Assists: 69
Playoffs:
Games Played: 11
Goals: 3
Assists: 11
Contract Status:
Signed through 2024-25 at $10,903,000M AAV.
Overall Thoughts:
There are times when the Leafs look out of sync. The gap between the back-end and the forwards looks almost like the length of the CN Tower. Their passes are not crisp and they don’t look tough. This typically coincides with Marner looking like he has a worse case of yips than Kevin Costner in Tin Cup.
As Marner goes, the Leafs go. His teammates have said as much. When he’s on, the rest of the team senses it and are on their game. Over the last five seasons, the Leafs have the fifth best overall record. They have won 65% of their games. That’s a large sample, which means that Marner has been consistently excellent for a long time (note: the top team over that same stretch are the Boston Bruins and the second best are the Tampa Bay Lightning – both teams are in the Atlantic Division with the Leafs).
Marner finished one assist or goal shy of his first 100 point season. The puck runs through him on the power-play. He’s on the top penalty killing unit. He led all forwards ice time and led the entire league in takeaways. He also had the most playoff points for the Leafs, even though the end result was disappointing.
Marner is a top-ten player in the entire league and he keeps improving. The Markham boy should never be allowed to leave his hometown team. He’s a magician who has pulled an ‘A+’ out of this hat.