Mikko Rantanen Part III

[Spender]

Mikko could crush Marner between his buns of steel.

Stupid, sexy Mikko!

 

[The Abusement Park]

Mikko could crush Marner between his buns of steel.

Or trip and fall onto him.

 

[Piestany88]

Those guys are all superstars in Toronto, even though none are actually stars , funny if uu let the media blind you

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

I mean Tavares is a Star. And Matthews will be a star soon.


But the rest of that forward group.... I don't see Marner or Nylander improving much on what they are now. Maybe one of them becomes a 70 point guy instead of 60.


That said as a group they are very deep no doubt. Probably Top 5 right now. Definitely behind Tampa, Washington, Winnipeg, and Pittsburgh though.

 

[klozge]

I mean Tavares is a Star. And Matthews will be a star soon.


But the rest of that forward group.... I don't see Marner or Nylander improving much on what they are now. Maybe one of them becomes a 70 point guy instead of 60.


That said as a group they are very deep no doubt. Probably Top 5 right now. Definitely behind Tampa, Washington, Winnipeg, and Pittsburgh though.

Oh yeah, he will. It's easy to underrate him simply because we're used to some Leafs fans constantly overhyping their players but Matthews is great.

 

[Piestany88]

I mean Tavares is a Star. And Matthews will be a star soon.


But the rest of that forward group.... I don't see Marner or Nylander improving much on what they are now. Maybe one of them becomes a 70 point guy instead of 60.


That said as a group they are very deep no doubt. Probably Top 5 right now. Definitely behind Tampa, Washington, Winnipeg, and Pittsburgh though.

I meant pre - Tavares , and yes Matthews soon to be but the Toronto media calls them all stars .

 

[Piestany88]

I mean Tavares is a Star. And Matthews will be a star soon.


But the rest of that forward group.... I don't see Marner or Nylander improving much on what they are now. Maybe one of them becomes a 70 point guy instead of 60.


That said as a group they are very deep no doubt. Probably Top 5 right now. Definitely behind Tampa, Washington, Winnipeg, and Pittsburgh though.

Leafs blue line is still bad

 

[Eltuna]

I mean Tavares is a Star. And Matthews will be a star soon.


But the rest of that forward group.... I don't see Marner or Nylander improving much on what they are now. Maybe one of them becomes a 70 point guy instead of 60.


That said as a group they are very deep no doubt. Probably Top 5 right now. Definitely behind Tampa, Washington, Winnipeg, and Pittsburgh though.

You’re way off on Marner. He hit 69 points in his sophomore year playing 16 minutes a game. Now getting to play with a legitimate star in Tavares I see him at 80+ this year. He was also the leafs best player in the playoffs very easily and is quite good defensively. Personally I would take him over any Avs player except for Mackinnon, although I understand why some might like Rantanen more. Nylander I agree with though.

 

[The Abusement Park]

You’re way off on Marner. He hit 69 points in his sophomore year playing 16 minutes a game. Now getting to play with a legitimate star in Tavares I see him at 80+ this year. He was also the leafs best player in the playoffs very easily and is quite good defensively. Personally I would take him over any Avs player except for Mackinnon, although I understand why some might like Rantanen more. Nylander I agree with though.

Marner still has to prove he can go PPG. Everything about him is pace. He paced for this, paced for that. Now obviously he’s a very talented player and is easily their 3rd best forward and I do think he’ll be a PPG winger going forward but with Rantanens size he can definitely have a bigger overall impact on the game if he can become a bit of a 2 way beast. Long story short I don’t think you can go wrong with either, but I will think Rants is he better player right now.

 

[Eltuna]

Marner still has to prove he can go PPG. Everything about him is pace. He paced for this, paced for that. Now obviously he’s a very talented player and is easily their 3rd best forward and I do think he’ll be a PPG winger going forward but with Rantanens size he can definitely have a bigger overall impact on the game if he can become a bit of a 2 way beast. Long story short I don’t think you can go wrong with either, but I will think Rants is he better player right now.

It’s true they are very close. I’d add that Rantanen got an additional 1:30 of pp time per game since the Avs led the league in power plays, had a high shooting percentage as well as a high oish%, and got to play almost entirely with Mackinnon. I’d agree it’s probably too early to tell who will be better but personally from what I’ve seen of Marner I like him better, he drives the play much more but I can’t argue with Rantanens size.

 

[The Abusement Park]

It’s true they are very close. I’d add that Rantanen got an additional 1:30 of pp time per game since the Avs led the league in power plays, had a high shooting percentage as well as a high oish%, and got to play almost entirely with Mackinnon. I’d agree it’s probably too early to tell who will be better but personally from what I’ve seen of Marner I like him better, he drives the play much more but I can’t argue with Rantanens size.

Like I said you can’t really go wrong with either. Marner will definitely be the more dynamic player going forwards that’s for sure.

 

[bigbizze]

Like I said you can’t really go wrong with either. Marner will definitely be the more dynamic player going forwards that’s for sure.

The main difference I see is that Marner actively drives play and much of the play goes through him whereas Rantanen is more of an excellent complimentary player who can complete plays which is why him and MacKinnon (play driver) work so well together.

 

[McMetal]

The main difference I see is that Marner actively drives play and much of the play goes through him whereas Rantanen is more of an excellent complimentary player who can complete plays which is why him and MacKinnon (play driver) work so well together.

While I agree that Marner drives play on his line (and is pretty underrated on these boards), I think you can't discount the chemistry that Mikko and MacK have. There's an intangible component to their play together. You can't buy chemistry like that where they work that well together (Landy is a huge part of that too on that line).

 

[The Abusement Park]

The main difference I see is that Marner actively drives play and much of the play goes through him whereas Rantanen is more of an excellent complimentary player who can complete plays which is why him and MacKinnon (play driver) work so well together.

Rantanen has definitely done some driving of the offense before, but overall yes he’s more of a complimentary piece because of Mack. But Marner will be playing with Matthews or Tavares who are also drivers. So he’ll have to learn to adapt.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Oh yeah, he will. It's easy to underrate him simply because we're used to some Leafs fans constantly overhyping their players but Matthews is great.

I mean I think the media and fan base still overrate him. He hasn't eclipsed 70 points yet in a season and he's being labeled a Top 5 center in the league by some Leafs fans, better than the likes of Mackinnon, Scheiele, Barkov, etc. When IMO he is still very far away from any of those guys right now.

 

[McMetal]

I mean I think the media and fan base still overrate him. He hasn't eclipsed 70 points yet in a season and he's being labeled a Top 5 center in the league by some Leafs fans, better than the likes of Mackinnon, Scheiele, Barkov, etc. When IMO he is still very far away from any of those guys right now.

Yeah, top 5 is a big stretch, but he is a high end 1C regardless and will be for a very long time.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Yeah, top 5 is a big stretch, but he is a high end 1C regardless and will be for a very long time.

Yeah. I think he could be Top 5 one day. But assuming Mack is a 90 point forward consistently going forward, I have a hard time seeing him ever passing Mack, McDavid, Barkov, Crosby, Malkin, Stammer, or Scheifele.

 

[missionAvs]

Yeah. I think he could be Top 5 one day. But assuming Mack is a 90 point forward consistently going forward, I have a hard time seeing him ever passing Mack, McDavid, Barkov, Crosby, Malkin, Stammer, or Scheifele.

I mean, I don't see why Matthews can't become a consistent PPG+ player in the near future. If he does that, then he's right there with Stammer, Scheifele, and probably even Barkov (probably not Barkov since he's sooo good defensively). I do agree that if MacK sticks to being a 90+ point producer then that will be hard to catch though.

 

[McMetal]

Yeah. I think he could be Top 5 one day. But assuming Mack is a 90 point forward consistently going forward, I have a hard time seeing him ever passing Mack, McDavid, Barkov, Crosby, Malkin, Stammer, or Scheifele.

Not to mention, he'll have to compete with Hughes and Lafreniere someday too, both have extremely high ceilings. I can see him being in between 5 and 10 during his prime. And Toronto fans should frankly be very, very happy with that out of a #1 pick. There's no reason for them to exaggerate him into being the best in the world when they are going to have two franchise level centers for years.

 

[22FUTON9]

Marners getting really underrated here. I think he's easily a Rantanen caliber player with probably a bit more game breaking ability. I'll pick rantanen over him because he works so well on our team but I'll be extremely surprised if Marner ends up being a 70 point player at his best

 

[CobraAcesS]

Marners getting really underrated here. I think he's easily a Rantanen caliber player with probably a bit more game breaking ability. I'll pick rantanen over him because he works so well on our team but I'll be extremely surprised if Marner ends up being a 70 point player at his best

Marner has to break through as a Kane or Gaudreau in order to really make his mark. That's a lot harder to do than what Mikko has ahead of him. We'll see..

I'm not sold on Toronto's top forwards being what they hope they'll be. As in top tear ppg forwards that is..

 

[Piestany88]

Marner has to break through as a Kane or Gaudreau in order to really make his mark. That's a lot harder to do than what Mikko has ahead of him. We'll see..

I'm not sold on Toronto's top forwards being what they hope they'll be. As in top tear ppg forwards that is..

Me neither, I think they're all overrated by the media

 

[22FUTON9]

I think Nylanders a bit overrated for sure and maybe Matthews depending on who you talk to as well. I do think Marner could become a Guadreau type.
It would have been interesting to see how much these players would have made (the matthews eichels etc...) if Chiarelli didn't decide to suddenly inflate the market by giving 12.5 and 8.5 million dollar contracts to McDavid and Draisaitli
(McDavid I guess you had no choice but that still really steep considering what the market was before those contracts)

 

[a mangy Meowth]

It honestly kind of bothers me that people think "driving play" from another line and scoring 69 is better than scoring 84 points simply because there is a better player at center. Rantanen is better than Marner. And he gets the worse matchups. Don't f***in @ me

 

[Avs44]

@a mangy Meowth sup man