Prospect Info: Magic Marner returns to London.

[WTFMAN99]

Mitch switched to Easton stick in January (unless your buddy is referring to gloves--which I haven't paid attention to).

No idea - Like I said, I don't notice that kind of stuff.

 

[DrJenniferHanson]

No idea - Like I said, I don't notice that kind of stuff.

Checking google search--your buddy is right. Switched from CCM to Easton gloves.

I know he switched from bauer to easton stick last winter, so your buddy acutely observed the switch in gloves.

 

[Atomos2]

I'm on team Marner, but to be fair, in addition to his relatively poor training camp, he was also a non-factor for the rookie tourney.

Let's be fair, he did have 2 points and was named the first star in one of the two games he played in during the rookie tourney.

 

[WTFMAN99]

Checking google search--your buddy is right. Switched from CCM to Easton gloves.

I know he switched from bauer to easton stick last winter, so your buddy acutely observed the switch in gloves.

He has an eye for details in things like that.

I just assumed the stick was the same deal but I know you're pretty dialled in with the Knights so i'll definitely take you at your word on the stick change in the winter.

End of the day I don't worry about Marner - it was going to be damn near impossible for him to make the team. He just needs to get a little bigger, it might take 1-2 years but we need to do what is best for him. I mean Eichel has 7 months on Marner in terms of age, doesn't seem like much but how impressed do you think we all will be with Marner 7 months from now? Pretty damn excited in my opinion

 

[Mess]

Mitch switched to Easton stick in January (unless your buddy is referring to gloves--which I haven't paid attention to).

As a London Knight expert, did you get to see Marner during the Leafs camp and if so what was your impression on his performance in the rookie tournament and camp?

 

[The Beyonder]

Basically, Hanifin has a shorter distance to go to become a useful NHL player. Marner has a much longer way to go to get there, but has more capacity to become a higher end player over the long run, but given his training camp performance, a lot has to go right for that to happen.

While I agree that he wasn't great in training camp, you have to keep in mind that's it's far too small of a sample size to gauge whether a lot has to go right for him to be a star player. He's 18 year old, playing his first games against NHLers and AHLers. Some top picks don't storm out of the gates. You can certainly believe a lot has to go right for him to be the player you think he can be, but it's not fair to base that on his first ever training camp.

 

[Stephen]

While I agree that he wasn't great in training camp, you have to keep in mind that's it's far too small of a sample size to gauge whether a lot has to go right for him to be a star player. He's 18 year old, playing his first games against NHLers and AHLers. Some top picks don't storm out of the gates. You can certainly believe a lot has to go right for him to be the player you think he can be, but it's not fair to base that on his first ever training camp.

At some point, I don't care about his backstory. Yes he's small, yes he's 18, yes it's his first rodeo, yes it was only two games, yes I'm a fan, yes I believe in his long term upside. But it wasn't up to snuff and he has a long way to go.

 

[Gary Nylund]

At some point, I don't care about his backstory. Yes he's small, yes he's 18, yes it's his first rodeo, yes it was only two games, yes I'm a fan, yes I believe in his long term upside. But it wasn't up to snuff and he has a long way to go.

Sounds like you've reached that point already. Good luck surviving the next few years with some semblance of sanity intact.

 

[jjjshab]

Marner and Tkachuk is a pretty powerful tandem.

Sherwood (/Piccinich) is no slouch either.

 

[Stephen]

Sounds like you've reached that point already. Good luck surviving the next few years with some semblance of sanity intact.

Why, what's happening the next few years that hasn't already happened the previous 10?

Marner's a work in progress and you can evaluate him at any point on what his snapshot is. I like the direction we went in when we picked him and I like his upside, but that doesn't mean you have to like everything you see all the time or have to defend him constantly.

 

[jjjshab]

Why, what's happening the next few years that hasn't already happened the previous 10?

Marner's a work in progress and you can evaluate him at any point on what his snapshot is. I like the direction we went in when we picked him and I like his upside, but that doesn't mean you have to like everything you see all the time or have to defend him constantly.

I didn't think he was anything to write home about in camp. Granted, I didn't think he deserved all the harping he got for his performance either. I think after so long of being so bad and mediocre, many fans are hoping for a hail mary to happen overnight with him and Nylander.

Mitch has a bit to go yet. Hopefully he turns the experience into something positive with the Knights, and drives him to blow up next camp.

 

[HellasLEAF]

If Marner becomes a two way C with high end offence that we fall in love with one day then we picked right.

If he becomes a talented player than goes to wing and doesn't really fill out that frame than you gotta think Hanny was the right pick.

I'm pretty sure someone will moan at the comparison but I think we as a fan base have every right to compare. IMO Hunter kinda stuck his neck out a bit taking Marner with Hanifin on the board.

At the end of the day I am a Leaf fan and support the team and not any one player I want what's best for the team.

 

[jjjshab]

If Marner becomes a two way C with high end offence that we fall in love with one day then we picked right.

If he becomes a talented player than goes to wing and doesn't really fill out that frame than you gotta think Hanny was the right pick.

I'm pretty sure someone will moan at the comparison but I think we as a fan base have every right to compare. IMO Hunter kinda stuck his neck out a bit taking Marner with Hanifin on the board.

At the end of the day I am a Leaf fan and support the team and not any one player I want what's best for the team.

The comparisons will always be there: 1) Because we're Leafs fans and we can't help ourselves, and 2) Because this is potentially a franchise-altering pick. Obviously, at this point in both their careers, it's a bit premature to compare them with any gauge on their future success (or lack thereof).

Out of curiosity, if both Marner and Hanifin hit their ceiling, how would your opinion shift?

I've watched Noah a bit through the last season (WJC, couple BC games) and came away generally unimpressed - at least in comparison to the hype he'd been getting all year long.

 

[ACC1224]

If Marner becomes a two way C with high end offence that we fall in love with one day then we picked right.

If he becomes a talented player than goes to wing and doesn't really fill out that frame than you gotta think Hanny was the right pick.

I'm pretty sure someone will moan at the comparison but I think we as a fan base have every right to compare. IMO Hunter kinda stuck his neck out a bit taking Marner with Hanifin on the board.

At the end of the day I am a Leaf fan and support the team and not any one player I want what's best for the team.

Hunter doesn't feel that way. Had he taken Marner over Eichel, that would have been a different matter.

 

[cookie]

Yotes fans also seem to think Strome's a year or two away. The timelines to NHL play for both guys seems almost identical, surprising given that one was thought to have an NHL-ready body. Marner wasn't too bad in the tourney but his showing was not as good as Nylander's was last year.

 

[Gabriel426]

What is Marner upside? Dougie of 92-93 or Giroux as 1C or is he Patrick Kane or St. Louis or Johnny Hockey as a scoring winger?
As a Leafs fan, ofcourse I want Marner to become as good as one of those five and Hanifin is Luke Schenn and Aki Berg 2.0.
Reality is I think both will be great players and since the Leafs already have Morgan and Jake(someone who could be top pairing), and pretty much no top end forwards beside Nylander, it was the right move to pick Marner.

 

[Bobs your uncle]

Points don't mean ****. We don't need him to learn how to score against teenagers who will never be more than AHLers, we need him to learn to score when he is playing top minutes, and everyone is trying to shut him down, while also playing the center position responsibly.

He needs first line minutes. Marner already showed he can score.

If Marner is expected to only be concerned about scoring points you can expect a player similar to Nail Yakapov. As well as physically maturing, Marner needs to learn to play a 200 ft game & not only work hard but work smart. Anticipating, positioning, working as hard without the puck as with it.
He is a loooooooong way from being NHL ready, hope he gets good coaching in the O.

 

[Leviathan899]

Points don't mean ****. We don't need him to learn how to score against teenagers who will never be more than AHLers, we need him to learn to score when he is playing top minutes, and everyone is trying to shut him down, while also playing the center position responsibly.

He needs first line minutes. Marner already showed he can score.

Agreed. Everyone already knows Marner is capable of producing a lot of points. He's creative and sees the ice. What he needs to develop more is the attention to detail that coaches and especially Babcock will expect from him next year. I don't get the posters saying oh he better get at least 2 ppg. Who cares, it doesn't mean he will be a Leaf if he puts up 120, or 90 points this year.

He needs to work on getting stronger, which will be very hard to do mid season as he plays so many games and will be travelling a lot. If anything, he will lose weight as the season progresses. But nonetheless, he needs to try and get stronger. His shot is very average and is not a threat from distance, so that is something he can work on for sure. He needs to cut out the cute little passes he makes at the blue line that often lead to turnovers, may work in the OHL but in the NHL it'll cause Babcock to go bald and they just aren't overly effective plays.

He needs to work on his positioning defensively and not getting caught puck watching, moving away from where he should be. He anticipates the play very well and gets to a lot of pucks first by this, but in man on man coverage down low, especially as a center, he needs to work on staying in proper lanes and stay on the strong side. These are things that he should, and will be working on all year. As well as working on his first three steps and getting quicker off the mark. He's already agile and very good laterally, but his straight line speed and power in his stride could improve.

Overall what I'm trying to get at is, who cares if he scores "infinity" points, whatever that means. I know 90% of leaf fans only care about offence and pretty plays, but there is so much more to being a good pro than being able to rack up 5 points in a 9-5 win for London over Sarnia. That to me proves nothing that we already know.

 

[Stephen]

Also as something we learned following Kadri's development path, it's not so important that he scores X in juniors this year to be successful but he should evolve his game to be more pro style. Fewer run and fun toe dragging OHL goals are fine if it means he's refining his game and playing in a way that will lead to NHL habits.

 

[Leviathan899]

No idea - Like I said, I don't notice that kind of stuff.

LOL that is because noticing that kind of stuff is a little weird and has no bearing on on-ice performance. Anybody is really reaching for excuses for the kid if they're blaming a new brand of gloves or sticks on his average performance.

 

[TheProspector]

I am honestly expecting Marner to put up the best OHL season in history. There is basically no precedent for that high a scorer in his draft year coming back to the league. If he can do a top-10 all-time OHL season in his draft year, he should be shooting for the best OHL season by any player. If not.... he's not as good as we think. But I think he is.

 

[Semantics]

I am honestly expecting Marner to put up the best OHL season in history. There is basically no precedent for that high a scorer in his draft year coming back to the league. If he can do a top-10 all-time OHL season in his draft year, he should be shooting for the best OHL season by any player. If not.... he's not as good as we think. But I think he is.

I don't think development really works like that. There's a limit to how many points you can score in a league that depends on the tools you have at your disposal. Marner most likely won't score as much as McDavid because he simply won't have the size or speed, and never will. He *will* be able to do some things this year that he couldn't last year, but I doubt it will be 0.55 PPG worth.

For the same reason, Tavares scored 2.0 PPG at age 16, and then couldn't beat that number in his 17 or 18 year old season. And Drouin was a player who, like Marner, went back down after his draft, and he didn't increase his production much. Ditto Spezza.

None of the players I mentioned stopped developing, they just reached their max potential in junior. That's why it's really unfortunate Marner can't go to the AHL instead.

I hope I'm proven wrong and Marner significantly beats last year's production. That would be an indication to me that he's an even better prospect than we thought, or has improved physically (strength, speed) more than expected. It's definitely more of a possibility than it was with those other players though, given that Marner has been such a late bloomer physically.

 

[hullsy47]

Hunter doesn't feel that way. Had he taken Marner over Eichel, that would have been a different matter.

he wouldnt have taken marner over eichel .......he took the next best in alot of people opinion .......hanifan might play now but hes struggling ,the leafs want good players on good teams ,
big difference ,we had kessel and picked in the lottery 3 times

 

[orbiter11]

he wouldnt have taken marner over eichel .......he took the next best in alot of people opinion .......hanifan might play now but hes struggling ,the leafs want good players on good teams ,
big difference ,we had kessel and picked in the lottery 3 times

That being said. Given Marners size and probability to be a right winger. Arent we kinda doing the same thing we did years back getting Kessel?

What happened to the people with 2 months to go till the draft thinking wed be lucky to be in a position to draft Hanafin id say 60% of posters. Not because I hate on Marner im just more interested in building a steady team and a guaranteed large top 4 D man fits that bill. I mean if Marner was 6 ft 180 and was assured top 2 centreman I might understand, but hes a bit of a project, shiny toy, type player. I also had my reservations about Strome because of his lack of mobility. Im just not going to say Shany Dubas, Hunter get a pass on decisions because Nonis destroyed our team once again. Im looking for sensible moves getting value for value and I havent seen anything theyve done moving along those lines. I would have preffered Lou making the decisions regarding Kessel and who we drafted this year.

 

[LeafsNation75]

I am honestly expecting Marner to put up the best OHL season in history. There is basically no precedent for that high a scorer in his draft year coming back to the league. If he can do a top-10 all-time OHL season in his draft year, he should be shooting for the best OHL season by any player. If not.... he's not as good as we think. But I think he is.

Assuming he plays for Canada at the World Juniors which should be happening, do you think it's possible for him to at least get more points than he did last season?