Toronto Maple Leafs: Mitch Marner Needs To Be Taken Seriously

Is Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner the most underrated superstar in the NHL?

The Toronto Maple Leafs have two of the best players in the NHL with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, yet Marner is always cast as the Robin to Matthews being Batman.

Despite outscoring Matthews in four of their first seven seasons, Marner always plays second fiddle. Maybe it’s because of his size, his happy-go-lucky attitude, or the fact that he’s not as lethal of a goal-scorer as Matthews, but Marner needs a lot more love than he gets.

I’d be one of the first people to admit when I was wrong, and my take on wanting to trade Marner is one of the dumbest takes in hockey. It had nothing to do with the fact that he’s skilled, but everything to do with his contract. It’s crazy how someone’s contract is how we all define professional athletes nowadays.

Back in the 2000-01 season, Mats Sundin was the 10th highest-paid player, making the exact same money as Dominik Hasek, yet nobody screamed about it. Leafs fans were just happy that Sundin was on their team and never wanted him to leave, well, except at the end of his career when he didn’t waive his no-trade clause, but that’s a story for another day.

Prior to the NHL’s salary cap, fans would brag about having the best player, not the best contract, and that’s the number-one reason why Marner’s getting unjust criticism. If there was no salary cap, and you told Leafs fans everywhere that over the last five years, they’d have a player who finished 11th, 19th, 4th, 10th, and 13th in NHL point totals while being named to the NHL First All-Star Team twice, they’d be ecstatic.

Toronto Maple Leafs Superstar Is the Most Underrated Player in NHL

Instead, they yell at Marner for being too “soft” or that he doesn’t shoot the puck enough because he signed a contract for a ton of money.

I know it’s just the way it works now, but a player’s salary should never affect your feelings on whether that player is good or not. First of all, it’s not your money that you handed out, and second of all, how much better could the Leafs really do if they had that salary cap?

Could they realistically go out and sign two top-four defensemen and make the roster better overall? Quite possibly; however, wouldn’t you rather just have Marner on the roster, scoring 30 goals per season and close to 100 points a year for entertainment sake?

Marner is clearly one of the best players in the NHL, and he needs to be recognized that way. You don’t need four guys making over $10M on your roster, but building a team around Marner and Matthews needs to be the way.

If you want to save money, trade William Nylander or John Tavares, but a 27-year-old Marner is just getting started, and there’s no reason to believe that he won’t be contending for the Art Ross Trophy this year.

Look out for Marner to have his best year as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs, yet.