Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner was named the team’s nominee for the King Clancy Memorial Trophy on Tuesday.
Mitchellyy Marner!
Congratulations to @Marner93 on being nominated for the King Clancy Memorial Trophy! pic.twitter.com/pbWooxhF53
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) April 15, 2025
This award is presented annually to the player who best demonstrates leadership on and off the ice and who has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution within his community. The King Clancy Trophy was first handed out following the 1987-88 season and given to Lanny McDonald.
Should Marner win this award, he would be the second Leaf in franchise history to do so. Curtis Joseph won the trophy during the 1999-2000 season. This marks the second time Marner was nominated for this award, with the previous instance being the 2019-20 campaign which ultimately went to Matt Dumba.
Marner is certainly a worthy nominee for this award as not only has he established himself as one of the leaders on the Leafs for a number of years, but he also does a lot of work in the community. He established the Marner Assist Foundation, which aims to provide sustainable change for the youth through social care, health, and education. This includes hosting the annual Marner All-Star Invitational, which the event has raised over $2 million since the first event in 2018 to help provide resources for children in under-resourced communities and is set to host another event this July.
On the ice, Marner has certainly cemented himself as a leader who can do it all. He has been tasked with playing in all situations as a forward, quarterbacking the Leafs’ power play, played a game as a defenceman, and even making some saves as an acting goalie when the net is pulled. No matter what the situation is on the ice, there is a good chance #16 will be out there looking to make an impact.
He is in the midst of a contract season where has put himself within striking range of reaching the century mark for the first time in his career. Heading into Tuesday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres, Marner leads the Leafs in scoring with 99 points (26 goals and 73 assists) which also has him tied with Connor McDavid for fifth in the NHL in points.
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It was an atypical regular season game, given that the Toronto Maple Leafs already clinched the Atlantic Division title and a playoff matchup with the Ottawa Senators, but they made Game 82 compelling nonetheless.
Toronto defeated the Detroit Red Wings 4-3 in overtime, with Scott Laughton notching the game-winner 56 seconds into the extra frame. Laughton made the most of his 22 shifts, and his line, consisting of Steven Lorentz and Calle Jarnkrok started the game.
We may be burying the lede, as the game truly belonged to Philippe Myers, who scored a wondergoal in the third period, changing the tenor of the game entirely.
Myers danced around Tyler Motte, walked Austin Watson, waited patiently and beat Cam Talbot through the wickets. It was a sensational goal from an unlikely candidate, as Myers recorded his second goal of the year.
Chris Tanev forced overtime with 1.8 seconds remaining and with nothing to play for but pride, Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube experimented with some unusual combinations. Laughton lobbied for an overtime shift and was rewarded with his 13th goal of the season to conclude the regular season.
Laughton was the recipient of the team belt, awarded to the team’s best or most impactful player in a winning effort.
“I think, if we go back three games now, he’s really come around for us,” Berube said of Laughton, post-game. “I thought in Buffalo he was excellent, but before that he was playing good hockey. Got some chemistry going with those guys, starting to feel a lot more comfortable. I was happy for him to get that goal in OT. You score a goal, you feel good about yourself but it’s not the goal so much, it’s how he’s playing the game.”
Here are four takeaways from the Maple Leafs’ victory over the Red Wings
- Craig Berube didn’t pretend as if there was anything to be gained, and started his fourth line, consisting of Laughton, Lorentz and Jarnkrok. It was a clear effort to manage his best players’ minutes, and it ended up working wonders. Laughton scored a goal that will surely boost his confidence entering the playoffs. Although the Maple Leafs acquired Laughton to function as a third-line centre, the acquisition cost is a moot point, and he can be moved up the lineup if needed. Laughton said he lobbied for an overtime shift, and it worked out well in an unconventional game. “It’s different, it’s different out there. You probably wouldn’t see me in the second shift of overtime, so that kind of explains it. It’s different but you score with a second left, and we found a way.”
- Myers scored an incredible goal which changed the tenor of the game, and it was a great reward for a player who has helped the Maple Leafs win five consecutive games, while fending off injuries to Jake McCabe and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. And his teammates couldn’t be happier for him. “It was unbelievable. I told him I was open back door, but it was really nice to see him score,” Laughton said of Myers. “I had a front-row seat for it. It was awesome to see him get on the board. He’s been playing some good hockey for us. He’s stepped up in some key situations, and played some crucial minutes for us.” Myers may not receive minutes during the playoffs if McCabe and Ekman-Larsson return, but considering that he won a job in training camp, and an extension in January, it’s a nice reward for a player who eschews the limelight. “It might be the goal of the year. I’ll go back and look at it. I wasn’t sure who it was for a while. Hell of a goal, I mean, hell of a goal. Great for him. I’m happy for him. Nice to see him be able to get one and do what he did,” Berube said post-game. Myers almost set up a goal for Matthew Knies, shortly after his wondergoal, and it’ll be compelling to see if he gets into any postseason game, in the event that either injured defenceman is unavailable for Game 1.
- Auston Matthews scored his 33rd goal of the season, and while there’s little predictive value from a game that saw the Maple Leafs unearth some odd combinations, Toronto’s top line was in strong form. Matthews worked a strong two-man game with Knies, while Marner capped off the best regular season of his career, with two assists, bringing him to 102 points on the season. Matthews, Marner and Knies are now expected to win their minutes against the Ottawa Senators handily, and show the continuity effect of being used as Toronto’s most commonly-used unit at 5-on-5 for the second consecutive year.
- Anthony Stolarz will certainly be named as the Maple Leafs’ playoff starter, and while Joseph Woll wasn’t at his best during Game 82, he was excellent throughout the season. Woll carried a true No. 1 workload when Stolarz missed nearly two months while recovering from an injury to remove a loose body from his knee, and finished the season with a 27-14-1 record with a .909 save percentage, 2.73 goals against average, and almost 17 goals saved above expected in all situations. Toronto enters the playoffs with the best goaltending tandem it has ever presented entering the playoffs, and while Berube has never operated with a tandem in the postseason before, Woll is as solid as ‘backup’ options get.
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It’s Game One time, baby! Or Game One Eve. The Battle of Ontario, an exciting concept but one that has the excitement tempered by the Leafs only scoring three goals against the Senators all season and the fact that Toronto has one just one game out of seven in the last two seasons against the Sens. That’s a whole lot of unnecessary downer talk. The regular season is what you learn from and now that Sheldon Keefe isn’t around to grind the learning experience cliche into a fine pulp, we can acknowledge there has been a lot to learn both from the past Leafs playoff failures and the Leafs’ failures against the Senators.
The importance of Domi and Robertson
It’s not that Nick Robertson or Max Domi had good seasons against the Senators. In Robertson’s case you can say he did, and in Domi’s case you can say that he improved. That’s something. The reason for looking at Domi and Robertson as value add players in the first round is that the Senators’ third pairing is something Toronto can look to exploit.
Nick Jensen is a decent enough defenceman but he will either be relying on a rotating partner from the top four or working with Travis Green’s attempt to find a depth option that matches well against the Leafs, similar to what the Leafs will be attempting to do with their sixth defencemen.
The case for Domi and Robertson is that secondary scoring is the name of the game at 5v5 in the playoffs and when Matthews and Tavares are going to be line matched into oblivion, Max Domi and Nick Robertson are capable offensive players that need to be ready to pick up the slack. The same holds true of Laughton, Jarnkrok, McMann, and Pacioretty, depending on who doesn’t get the choice gig next to Tavares and Nylander (as much as it hasn’t been tested, I’d argue this could be a good spot for Laughton, but that’s for another time.)
Robertson is one of the few Leafs that picked up a point against the Senators this season (and again for what it is worth McMann is one of the few with a goal), and both Robertson and Domi have been hitting their stride heading into the playoffs.
The issue, as always, with Domi and Robertson is defensive zone play, and the Senators third line is offensively capable enough to take advantage of that duo, so the name of the game would be sheltering, but a sheltered (also read as rested and ready to go) offensive option could be a difference maker over giving preference to having two bottom six shot suppression/checking lines.
The Leafs still lack a simple heavy shot from the point
The Leafs have but one player who has shown that he can hammer the puck from the point with any consistency. We’ll get to him in a minute, but for now let’s get to one of my simple narratives that I fall back on all the time. The Leafs need a really heavy point shot. I like Morgan Rielly but that has never been his game, he’s a pincher and a puck mover. Oliver Ekman-Larsson is a whole lot of the same, and even the defensive defencemen like Carlo, Tanev, and McCabe don’t have the hammering shot from the point that the Leafs have enjoyed borrowing in the past when they’ve brought in players like Lyubushkin and Schenn, not that they use their shot often and it was exclusively limited to 5v5.
The forward group isn’t much help in this area either. Robertson, Tavares, Nylander, and Matthews all have good shots, but are more about speed of release than actual velocity of the puck. They can hit the 90s, but there isn’t a 100mph guy there and opposite of the defensive situation, you’d really only get to use them in that capacity on the powerplay anyway. There wouldn’t be a 5v5 solution.
The reason why I care so much about this is that the playoffs are a time of greasier and/or simpler goals. The opportunity for Mitch Marner to outwit the defence with an ankle breaking move or precise cross-ice pass aren’t as likely as John Tavares laying down a deflection or Matthew Knies fighting for a rebound. The goals will be greasy and a heavy point shot helps with that. I’ve longed for this since the days of Kaberle and Gardiner and now I’m here complaining about it again.
Where I see at least some minimal salvation is at the bottom of the Leafs’ depth chart. Philippe Myers is that shot. His 100 mph shot put him the 97th percentile for shot speed and his average speed also sits in the 96th percentile. He’s also in the 90th percentile for shots over 90 mph. Myers adds value to the Leafs playoff lineup.
While the Leafs and Berube have made it pretty clear that Simon Benoit is their guy, it will be interesting to see if things change by Game Two. Will the Leafs need a point shot? How much is Craig Berube relying on his top five defencemen taking the minutes and is a specialist a better option for the sixth spot? The answers aren’t there yet, but as someone who is fan of shin destroying point shots that wreak havoc on the opposition, I would give consideration to playing Myers over Benoit.
What the three games against Ottawa say regarding the Leafs roster
This first game against the Senators this season came with the built-in excuse of the Leafs playing without Auston Matthews. That’s not really an excuse and being shutout 3-0 isn’t acceptable in any situation, but it certainly adds a little context to a game that looks pretty bad when just staring at the result.
The shot attempts and quality of chances in the second game against the Senators this season support the notion that the Leafs outplayed the Senators and they were more or less the victims of a Anton Forsberg standing on his head. No team deserves the luxury of just saying “we were goalie’d” and moving on from it, but it was another understandable situation in a trio of games that resulted in a season series sweep.
The final game includes an empty netter from the Senators that doesn’t fully capture how balanced this game was. The Leafs should still have picked up a win in one of these three games, but this was an even keeled battle.
Terrible results but nothing that should result in treating the Senators like an unfortunate playoff seeding.
What can also be learned from those previous games is that Steven Lorentz and Pontus Holmberg were a lot more effective in fourth line roles than almost any other bottom six options the Leafs used. There were also struggles from Oliver Ekman-Larsson when playing higher up in the Leafs pairings, and Philippe Myers was more successful than Simon Benoit against the Senators (furthering the case for Myers in the lineup.)
The one interesting thing was unexpected was that despite being one of the few Leafs with a goal against the Senators this year, Bobby McMann didn’t have a great showing against the Senators this year statistically. Playing with Domi and Nylander he struggled, and again when he played with Tavares and Marner. With the return of Max Pacioretty it seems likely that McMann will find himself starting from the bottom of the lineup and having to work his way back up.
Of course, three games are just three games and three points in time. November, January, and March all yielding unfortunate results isn’t a sign that the Senators would easily take three games off the Leafs in a row in round one the same way the Leafs wouldn’t have an easy task facing the Lightning despite sweeping them this year.
Data from NHL Edge and Natural Stat Trick
The Toronto Maple Leafs had their fans on the edge of their seats from the second period on, and not in a good way.
After jumping out to an early 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Morgan Rielly and John Tavares, the Ottawa Senators turned on the jets and played like a completely different team than the one the Leafs saw on Sunday in Game 1. They controlled possession for the majority of the final 40 minutes while the Leafs took two careless high-sticking penalties, one of which led to Ottawa’s first goal of the game.
Max Domi in particular was having a rough go, namely with his presence on the ice for Ottawa’s tying goal with less than five minutes to go in the third period. Craig Berube continued to use him normally, even giving him a promotion to the second line with John Tavares and William Nylander, and he made the most of the opportunity.
MAX DOMI CALLS GAME
He buries the @Energizer OT winner and the @MapleLeafs have a 2-0 series lead! #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/nAfdwuduR4
— NHL (@NHL) April 23, 2025
The Leafs were prepared for pushback from the Senators after taking advantage of their raw, inexperienced emotion in Game 1, and the Senators delivered. They outshot the Leafs 28-21, and despite the Leafs holding them without a shot for the first 15 minutes of the third period, they capitalized on a bad Leafs play and punished them for it just like the Leafs did to them in Game 1.
Morgan Rielly deserves a shoutout for bringing his ‘playoff Mo’ character to the dance this year. He has two goals in two games so far despite being subject to criticism for much of the regular season due to his weak offensive numbers and less-than-stellar play in his own zone. It seems that all he needed was a partner he could play comfortably with, and along came Brandon Carlo to fulfill that role. The Leafs were last in the NHL in goals from their defencemen, but now have three in two playoff games between Rielly’s two and one from Oliver Ekman-Larsson. If Rielly can become a legitimate threat from the point again, they’re going to be that much harder to stop.
Anthony Stolarz was excellent for the second game in a row, stopping 26 of 28 shots for the win and giving some payback to Ridly Greig for his antics in Game 1 along the way.
The Leafs are up 2-0 in a series since the first time since 2002, and will head to Ottawa on Thursday to try and put the Senators on their heels in the series. They’ll need a better effort from start to finish, but if you can secure the win, nobody looks back on the puck possession numbers from the second period.
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