2015 Toronto Maple Leafs draft pick Mitch Marner found out last weekend that he’ll be spending this season back with the OHL’s London Knights. He played his first game back in London on Friday night, recording a goal and an assist as the Knights fell 6-5 in overtime to the Windsor Spitfires. Despite the loss, Marner looked at ease all night, not missing a beat in rekindling his chemistry with his teammates, particularly Matthew Tkachuk and Christian Dvorak.
Marner’s focus has now shifted from his future with the Leafs to the present. When asked how he felt about being sent down from training camp, he said “In the back of my head I wanted to come back here a little bit, play on the first line, dominate, and help out the younger guys as much as possible.” Now in his third season in London, Marner has adopted a much larger role on the team. In the absence of last year’s captain Max Domi, he now finds himself the most relied-upon player in the lineup. He’s sharing the captaincy with Christian Dvorak, an Arizona Coyotes prospect, who with Marner completes potentially the most powerful scoring duo in the OHL – Dvorak had 4 points in his first game back.
Mitch Marner is set apart from his competition by his incredible skating ability and skill with the puck. He was a controlling influence on the Knights powerplay on Friday, getting both of his points with the man advantage. In the offensive zone, Marner’s talent for accurate, laser beam passes shone through. The chemistry with his teammates is also to be commended, as all the Knights players looked to be on the same wavelength in the offensive zone. They lost the game due to some defensive breakdowns and unlucky bounces that kept their shots out, but they certainly dominated the game, coming out with 42 shots and 5 goals to show for it.
For those watching the prospect rankings for the 2016 NHL draft, expect Matthew Tkachuk to be a mainstay in at least the top five, potentially climbing higher. Through the first three games of the season, he has 8 points (2 goals, 6 assists). In the two games before Marner and Dvorak returned, he stepped up to fill their shoes, leading the way offensively for the Knights, including battling through an incredibly physical, scrappy game against the Kingston Frontenacs last Saturday. London dropped that game in a shootout, which happened after what looked like Kingston’s winning overtime goal was disallowed. Tkachuk showed a fiery side of him in that game, coming back into the game with a vengeance after being speared “on [his] body” (in his own words). NHL teams like Toronto, New Jersey and Arizona should be watching how his season progresses.
The Knights look to be the most potent scoring team in the OHL this year, and are very much capable of a deep playoff run if they can sort out the defensive breakdowns that have plagued them in the first two weeks.
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