As a non-Leafs fan who considers himself part of the "Defend Mitch Marner" club, I'd definitely still put Mark Stone ahead of him.

I can see why you’d think that bc of stone’s great defensive play. Stone’s defence>Marner’s, but marner’s offence>stone’s. Marner is becoming a great defensive player as well. He was like top 10 in takeaways this year as well as selke voting I believe. So if the defence isn’t that far off, and the offence favours marner, I’m taking marner. Offence is more valuable than defence.

Stamkos is definitely on here, whether you put him on LW or RW he is definitely top 5 in one of them.

Draisatl is a top 5 center.

Makar, Fox, and McAvoy are not the top 3 defense in the league. At the very least Hedman, Josi and Piet are still better than them

I love the Mark Stone addition, guy doesn't get enough credit!

I mean its kinda hard to say Marner's offense is better when stats favor Stone offensively

Hedman, yes, the others just aren’t man. The young guys have surpassed them.

Im not saying they wont pass them because its inevitable but i disagree that they already have. Josi was injured this year and still on had a great year. Hes also only 1 season removed from being the undisputed #2 in the league. Piet also had an excellent season. Basing the ranks off 1 season, especially a shortened one is silly

Yup.

Lol Hedman 4th? Sure

Draisaitl has to be somewhere on here and Landeskog doesn't belong on here.

Yeah I have to echo draisaitl but I'm going ovi over landeskog still. I dont love the d order but the players are right except id have josi no hamilton for sure.

Yup.

Stamkos lol. He isn’t nearly as good 5 on 5 anymore as the other guys on this list. He scored most his goals on the pp. He is still a great player but not better than anyone on this list.

Draisaitl is overrated. I watch him and he doesn’t impress me as much as the other top 5 centres I have. He gets all those points and I don’t know how he does it tbh. I see an oiler score and see “assisted by draisaitl” and I’m just like, how? He isn’t as dynamic or offensively skilled and versatile as the others. He is very efficient I guess. Give him credit, he gets it done. He just seems lazier than the others to me. He isn’t as good at driving a line as the others, and he is one of the worst defensive players in the league, which isn’t good especially if you’re a centre. He also benefits a lot from mcdavid.

Makar is the mcdavid of defencemen. He is so electric on offence, and he is solid in his own end too. Fox just won the Norris. He deserves to be here. Petro wasn’t as good as the others herr and the same as josi. They weren’t better this year.

Like I said, I think it’s close, and I could see an argument for stone>marner

Maybe, just maybe, the problem is your eyes, and not Draisaitl.

I'm in the opposite boat-Defence is far more valuable IMO than offence. Honestly, it's probably just me being picky, and I have zero problem with Marner being above Stone, I just think it's a good discussion. I just think that Stone is a guy that you can put out there in the last couple of minutes of a tight hockey game and not worry about. I think it's just the giveaways that bother me...pretty much double what Stone had. Maybe that has a lot to do with him having the puck on his stick more often, and that when the rare big mistake happens, it's magnified, but I just feel like Stone is the safer bet.

Again though, love me some Marner...guy is dynamic and I get a kick out of the weird portion of Leafs fans that don't like nice things.

I also love that this discussion has nothing to do with how much either guy is paid, because it shouldn't!

Your take on Draisaitl is not good, hes like MacKinnon but not nearly as fast (not calling him slow just that Mac is legitimately that fast). The guy just outmuscles everyone and has the elite skills to match it.

DeBrincat and Landeskog don’t belong on the top 5, top 10 but not top 5, and Demko I definitely wouldn’t have in there, but I can respect the thoughts behind it.

Draisaitl>Barkov
Pasta should be top 5
Landeskog shouldn't be top 5

no way on stamkos, stamkos is in the same convo as doughty where their name is what is keeping them talked about as elite players but they havent been for a few years, name and legacy bias

He has stone hands and is slow. Yes he is physical but he has his one timer and his good passing. That’s it. Not saying he sucks but he isn’t as good as the top 5 I have. I think he’s 6 honestly. He still gets points and I gotta give him credit for it.

I still don’t know what others see in him. He has so many easy assists to mcdavid and easy goals that mcdavid did most of the work on. Rarely do I see him score a highlight real goal. Doesn’t mean he’s sucks, he had 81 pts this year that’s amazing. I gotta give him credit for it. He finds spaces to score those goals and get those assists. But he just isn’t as dynamic as the others to me.

great player but very overrated because he puts up points and won a hart trophy that he shouldnt have won

I updated that reply u just quoted by the way if u wanna see the rest

lol answer stays the same