{"id":6493,"date":"2017-02-10T22:12:48","date_gmt":"2017-02-11T03:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/?p=6493"},"modified":"2017-02-10T22:12:48","modified_gmt":"2017-02-11T03:12:48","slug":"mitch-marner-toronto-maple-leafs-not-secret-weapon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2017\/02\/10\/mitch-marner-toronto-maple-leafs-not-secret-weapon\/","title":{"rendered":"Mitch Marner &#8211; The Toronto Maple Leafs Not So Secret Weapon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/marnemi01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mitch Marner<\/a><\/strong> has suddenly become the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nhl.com\/mapleleafs\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> best rookie, and arguably their best player this season. At the beginning of the season, many were skeptical on weather or not he would even play with the club this season. Look where we are now.<\/p>\n<p>Marner leads all NHL rookies in scoring as well as the Leafs in scoring with 46 points in 53 games. He has 14 goals and 32 assists.<\/p>\n<p>We all know that Mitch Marner can score pretty goals.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Mitch Marner continues to be absolutely unreal. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/OGPsRsyRQe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/OGPsRsyRQe<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NHL (@NHL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NHL\/status\/799425901402296320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 18, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>But it&#8217;s his effort and play without the puck, and will and desire to get it back, that is also impressive.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nZ9rY0vx6Ho<\/p>\n<h2>Mitch Marner &#8211; The Toronto Maple Leafs Not So Secret Weapon<\/h2>\n<p>Playing on a line with veterans <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/bozakty01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyler Bozak<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/v\/vanrija01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">James van Riemsdyk<\/a><\/strong> has certainly helped the young star find his way in the NHL. They have nothing but high praise for the rookie.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bozak, van Riemsdyk full of praise for Marner\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/n8hHlDK4g3o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/sports\/hockey\/nhl\/marner-matthews-maple-leafs-1.3857648\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Coach Mike Babcock said<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, &#8220;He competes with and without the puck. That&#8217;s really positive. I&#8217;ve never coached a kid that good that young.&#8221; Move over <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/matthau01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Auston Matthews<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marner\u2019s junior coach <\/span><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/hunteda02.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dale Hunter<\/a><\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/dreger-report-marner-working-magic-for-leafs-1.611286\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the London Knights<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, isn\u2019t surprised at Marner\u2019s NHL success, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cHe has a great motor,\u201d Hunter said when asked to explain the massive ice time. \u201cThat means he&#8217;s able to play a lot of minutes, but he never stops on the forecheck or the backcheck.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>A Plethora of Young Talent<\/h3>\n<p>The Leafs obviously have a lot of young talent. You have No. 1 draft pick Auston Matthews, <strong style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/n\/nylanwi01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">William Nylander<\/a><\/strong>,<strong style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/brownco02.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Connor Brown<\/a><\/strong>,<strong style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Zack Hyman<\/strong>,<strong style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/z\/zaitsni01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nikita Zaitsev<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0<strong style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/soshnni01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nikita Soshnikov<\/a><\/strong>,<strong style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/c\/carrico01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Connor Carrick<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and Mitch Marner.<\/p>\n<p>Three of the Leafs rookies have been named the NHL&#8217;s rookie of the month. William Nylander for October, Auston Matthews for December and Mitch Marner for January.<\/p>\n<p>All are great\u00a0hockey players, but, this season, Marner has been a stand-out that has\u00a0sometimes been cast in the shadows of Matthews.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Boudreau: &quot;That [Mitch] Marner&#39;s going to be unbelievable. Every time he touched the puck, I was worried. He has no fear for a 19yo.&quot; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/leafs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#leafs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RussoHockey\/status\/806852367710900224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 8, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>This may be a good thing for Marner. Quietly having a stellar rookie season on the wing of the Leafs second line, while your line-mates and friends take the brunt of the media attention and you just keep playing your game. Not too shabby.<\/p>\n<p>Marner hasn&#8217;t really had a slump this season either. He has really flourished under coach Mike Babcock and turned into a fast and reliable player offensively and defensively.<\/p>\n<p>The Leafs are lucky to\u00a0have such a plethora of young talent. This season, it appears that Mitch Marner has quietly stole the show, emerging as one of the Leafs best players, and one of their best not-so-secret weapons.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\nOTTAWA, ON &#8211; OCTOBER 12: Mitchell Marner #16 of the Toronto Maple Leafs skates in his first career NHL game against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on October 12, 2016 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Jana Chytilova\/Freestyle Photography\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mitch Marner has suddenly become the Toronto Maple Leafs best rookie, and arguably their best player this season. At the beginning of the season, many were skeptical on weather or not he would even play with the club this season. Look where we are now. Marner leads all NHL rookies in scoring as well as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1859,"featured_media":2446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[228,37,234,231,229,38,72,232,230],"class_list":["post-6493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leafs","tag-auston-matthews","tag-hockey","tag-james-van-riemsdyk","tag-mike-babcock","tag-mitch-marner","tag-nhl","tag-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-tyler-bozak","tag-william-nylander"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1859"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}