Nope. He is not driving the line but he is contributing. Not a passenger. He wasnt Kapanen or Johnsson on Matthews wing level of carried around.

and its not a coincidence that JT by far got to his highest goal total

Why when he can play for his hometown

Because he wants to win the cup. Also Arizona might not even have NHL team in 5yrs.

He had more primary points than Tavares...

They will and they’ll be good. No chance he’s here past 5 years

Did you not read what I said? HIS POINT TOTALS WERE INFLATED BY JT, who has a long history of inflating wingers point totals. JT drove that line hard while Matthews was driving his line with 3rd liners on it all year.

Also, points are irrelevant in player evaluation. Points are so random in the NHL that they are a poor indicator at best. Underlying metrics are starting to rule the league (but quietly so that the boomers don't figure it out) and GM's are increasingly making their most important decisions based off them. Welcome to the new world. Adapt or die.

How many goals did Marner had and how many goals did Tavares got? Marner was playing with Tavares on 5v5 and with both Matthews and Tavares on PP. Yes he had a lot of primary points. Im not taking it away from him at all, but he wasnt driving play on that line.

He wont go there.

Why not

His role changed, not his level of play/production. He scored 2 more points than his career high. What you are looking at is a role change allowed by the best winger he has ever had. That doesn't mean JT was being propped up like marner was. It means he didn't have to do everything and could focus on one thing (scoring).

So primary assists aren't an indicator of driving play?

Tavares elevated point totals of his wingers by circa 30% over the course of his career. We have metrics we use to determine players quality (I learned not to go with point totals in evaluation and others should too), clubs like Leafs and those who are modern-run have that as first layer. They have so good metrics we dont even know about its insane.

Tavares elevated Marners point totals and ALL stats and history is proving that to be the case.

100% Agree.

Not the main indicator actually. Thats why I said he is not a passenger but he is not driving play on that line. Actually the main indicator of how players drive or do not drive play imo is the difference of impact on ice of player #1 without #2 and opposite. JTs impact on ice without Marner is similar to his impact with him. Marners impact on ice drops scarily too much without JT in contrast to his impact with JT. That is only one of things I personally use to indicate who is driving the line and who doesnt. Primary points are like 4th thing. That indicates to me that Mitch Marner has some impact on the ice which makes him no passenger but he is not driving the play on the ice while JT is driving that line. Marner is greatly talented playmaker and good responsible player defensively and I love his style of play but he is not driving that line nor is he deserving 10+ on any term.

I always find it funny how trolls on here complain about how much attention TO gets, while spending as much time talking about the Leafs as Leaf fans do. If the media attention is the problem, the haters are half of that.

Can't there be two driving forces on one line?

Then nor is matthew deserving of 10+ at 5 years

There certainly can be but this is not the case. Stamkos-Kucherov was the case for example.

marners better than Stammer

The flashy bit is a big part why Marner's value is all over the place, imo. Marner is an absolute joy to watch play at times. But being, flashy, creative and dynamic doesn't necessarily equal dominant.

He is deserving more than 10+ on 5yr deal. 11.6 is slight overpayment but you gotta pay your without doubt best player and likely future captain and leader.

I could certainty see him leaving in 5 years. But my guess is he'd head to one of the big US market teams... Rangers, Blackhawks, LA or even... gasp... Boston

Call me when Marner will be hitting 0.5 goals per game and above ppg average for most of 10yrs with different linemates in different situations.

So Marner having the 3rd most primary assists in the league are not a driving factor? His elite zone entries with possession and elite shot assist numbers are not a driving factor?