Quoting: TML_Tika
Gordon, i have been following Marner since his London Knights days. There is also a fantastic video about him following him as a 5 years old up to the London Knights. Marner had head to head battles with McDavid for a lot of years in minor hockey but then McDavid moved ahead because he kept growing and Marner stopped as a kid for a few years. However, you need to compare what Marner achieved in junior hockey vs McDavid and McDavid still has not won anything but individual awards. Do me a favour and google Mitch Marner awards won in last year of junior hockey and tell me if you know of one other hockey player in the NHL who won that many awards in one year of junior hockey.
If Marner was on any other team and a little bigger in size he would get alot more respect from guys like you. He is without a doubt a franchise player for the Leafs and any other team in the NHL and to my mind, i consider him a generational player to the Leafs as they have not had a player like him for a generation. At the end of the day, he is going to help the Leafs win a number of cups and then guys like you will give him the respect he deserves.
You mention Heiskanen and Dahlin like you worship them, and do not get me wrong as they are good young players but have not really done much yet. To be honest i would take Quinn Hughes over both those players. You need to get real and realize that Marner is really a 90 to 100 point player for the Leafs which you clearly do not appreciate. Marner led team is points in his second and third years in NHL and would have lead the team in points in his first year in NHL if he was not sick for part of year and YES HE HAD MORE POINTS THAN MATTHEWS IN THEIR FIRST 3 YEARS IN THE NHL.
Well, Marner is 4cm shorter than McDavid, so this is clearly not what is setting them appart. That he is from the area and so on is just not relevant. Also, he had so many awards, because players like McDavid played in the NHL right after they got drafted. And in terms of junior hockey success, no one will ever be better than Taylor Hall I think.
It is not that I do not like Marner, it is that I don't like Marner at hit salary. Every player should be measured according to their salary. And while I say Marner plays well on special teams, I am many times a bit frustrated with his play 5vs5. too many giveaways, sometimes the effort does not always look great and the last playoffs were very bad.
I would love Marner at 8.5-9m per year. Don't just look at the numbers, as players like Draisaitel outperform him there a lot on a lot better deals