Oct
With the London Knights set to make their third straight appearance in the Memorial Cup in 2014, there are several players on the team that are used to making headlines. Domi, Horvat, Anderson, the Rupert brothers – they’ve all played in high pressure situations and they’ve all scored timely goals. But there’s another player on the Knights that is making a name for himself early in the season. His name is Mitchell Marner.
Playing as a forward for the Don Mills Flyers (GTHL) in 2012/13, Marner showed the potential to be an elite offensive talent by scoring 41 goals and 86 points in 55 games. As a result, he was drafted 19th overall by London in the 2013 OHL Priority Selection.
Just 9 games into the 2013/14 season, the 16-year old has recorded 2 goals and 8 assists while slowly working his way into more icetime. His 10 points is 3rd best on the team and tied for 1st among OHL rookies.
Kevin Thacker, a scout with HockeyProspect.com started submitting very positive reports on Marner early in his OHL Draft season.
“The game reports started rolling in and it was apparent to me early on that Kevin (Thacker) really liked Marner,” said Mark Edwards, HP’s Director of Scouting. “When we spoke about him, he raved about how smart he was and how creative he was. I didn’t waste much time going to see Marner for myself and when I saw him, it was easy to see why Kevin was so high on him. ”
Marner was listed at 5’7” 130 lbs. An obvious reason why his detractors had him pegged as a fringe prospect. There have been small players before who have not made the jump to the OHL with the same amount of success as they had in AAA hockey.
“Once all of our Ontario scouts had seen him, it was pretty clear we were all of the opinion that Marner was a special player who could play through his size limitations and excel in the OHL,” explained Edwards.
“It’s not that we overlooked his size. It did factor in on our final ranking, if he was a little bit bigger we would’ve had him ranked in our top 5 without blinking.”
Marner grew over the summer and is now listed on the London Knights website at 5’10” and 164 lbs. So far, his size hasn’t been a limitation to his play and he’s already recorded three multi-point games.
“Marner has been very good,” added Edwards “He has great vision and he’s a really smart player. I’d call him elite as a playmaker but the kid can score too. He has really good feet, he’s elusive and is able to buy himself time and space. “
“He makes passes you don’t think he can make. He’s a ‘pass first’ guy right now and sometimes gives up some shooting opportunities he should probably take. I’m impressed with his complete game. He understands positioning and doesn’t neglect his defensive responsibilities. He’s a competitor and isn’t shy about winning his own pucks. When he gets the puck, he’s smart with it. This is a rookie who makes his line mates better.”
“He’s something special and you can already sense the London fans at Budweiser Gardens know it. When he rushes the puck, there is a buzz in the building.”
And Knights fans hope that ‘buzz’ will continue for a few years. Marner will be eligible for the NHL Draft in 2015.
“We feel that if he can get stronger he will put himself in a good position to be selected in the 1st round amongst a very strong crop of prospects in next year’s draft class,” said Edwards.
Photo Credit: Jim Van Horne
Below is Marner’s profile from the HockeyProspect.com 2013 OHL Draft Guide released last March.
Marner, Mitchell – RC – Don Mills Flyers (GTHL)
Mitchell was selected 1st round, 19th Overall by the London Knights at the 2013 OHL Priority Selection Draft. Mitchell showed elite potential offensive talent for the Don Mills Flyers. Mitchell is a good skater and shows acceleration when skating with the puck. Mitchell is very shifty and is constantly making opponents miss, putting themselves out of position. He shows excellent puck skills and has the creativity and ability to constantly beat defenders in 1-on-1 situations. Marner also displays an elite scoring touch and is good at beating goaltenders with a variety of different dekes and both slap and wrist shots from all areas of the offensive zone. He shows excellent playmaking skills, constantly making his linemates better by setting them up in great scoring situations. He is a threat to score on every shift and if he does not have the puck he is in constant puck pursuit. Marner is also reliable in the defensive zone and is good at helping out down low and using his skating ability to skate pucks out of trouble. He is utilized in both power play and penalty kill situations for the Flyers and works hard to do the little things such as blocking shots in order to help get his team the win. Although small in stature, Mitchell is not afraid to take a hit to make a play and does not shy from contact in front of the opposition net. Size is his biggest issue going forward although he has shown that he has the shiftiness and vision to keep out of harms way. Mitchell also needs to work on shortening his shifts as he appears tired and neglects back-checking towards the end of some shifts.