It was 67 years between Toronto Maple Leaf players winning the Hart Trophy when Auston Matthews won the award in 2022, being the first since Ted Kennedy in 1955 and it may not be nearly as long to see the next franchise winner.
Toronto Maple Leafs star winger Mitch Marner looks to be one of the front runners for what is commonly known as the most important individual in hockey.
Cue all Maple Leaf haters to roll their eyes at the fact another Leafs blogger propping up a winger as the best player in the league, but it is hard to argue against it. You'll have many quickly say that Nathan MacKinnon or Leon Draisaitl are the leading candidates and they would be able to make valid points.
Both former Hart Trophy winners have numbers that back up arguments, MacKinnon leads the league in assists (51) and points (65), though his 5v5 are not that great, while he has struggled without Cale Makar on the ice. Leon Draisaitl leads all goal scorers (29). However, there is a case to be made that Marner has been the most important player to his team over any other individual in the league.
Is Mitch Marner the Front Runner for the 2025 Hart Trophy?
For Marner, he does have a good supporting cast with the likes of William Nylander and Auston Matthews, however, he rarely plays at all with the Nylander, while Matthews has already missed nearly 37% of the season.
All three contenders for the award have relatively close numbers on the powerplay, however, the big difference is that the 2015 fourth overall pick runs the man advantage in Toronto, where as both MacKinnon and Draisaitl are secondary and tertiary pieces on their units with Colorado defaulting to Cale Makar and Edmonton leaning on Connor McDavid to run the attack.
Powerplays are usually known as the easy ice-time where you can pad your stats and with MacKinnon he gets more of an advantage as he averages almost a full minute more than both Draisaitl and Marner.
Another key factor in winning the award is a players ability to play in all roles of the game, which includes playing shorthanded. Marner is leaned on as the main forward penalty killer in Toronto, which is eighth in the league and he averages over two and a half minutes a night. Both Draisaitl and MacKinnon are rarely used and have both barely cleared two minutes for the entire season.
The biggest factor in separating Marner from the other contenders is when you are talking about who the Maple Leafs Most Valuable Player this season has been, there is no debate it is without doubt Mitch Marner. He is one of the key players on the penalty kill, the powerplay runs through his stick and with the game on the line he has been the player that the play goes through. When you ask Edmonton Oiler or Colorado Avalanche fans you find that while they are two important players to their teams, neither fits this same category this year as Marner.
No player in the NHL has done more for their team this season than Mitch Marner.