Multi-faceted Maple Leafs star Mitch Marner nears assist milestone

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Just about every game now, it seems, Mitch Marner sets or ties a career-high or moves up another spot in one of the Maple Leafs’ franchise scoring lists.

It happened again on Wednesday in the Leafs’ 3-2 victory against the Florida Panthers.

When Marner made the kind of pass few in the National Hockey League can make — we’re talking about counting players on one hand — to set up Matthew Knies for what turned out as the winner, a couple of things occurred.

It was the 69th assist of the season for Marner, tying his career high, and after he scored earlier in the period, it marked his 201st multi-point game, tying him with Dave Keon for fourth in team history.

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Marner also had 69 assists two years ago, when he finished with 99 points in 80 games. With seven Leafs games remaining, Marner should hit the 100-point milestone for the first time in his NHL career.

Going into the Leafs’ home game against Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday, Marner has 93 points.

Let this serve as a reminder that there is no comparable for Marner in the free-agency market this summer.

CORE OF THE MATTER

It wasn’t always pretty, but that’s the point.

Don’t get us wrong: When Leafs captain Auston Matthews set up Marner for Toronto’s second goal on Wednesday and Marner later sent in Knies, each goal was of the highlight variety.

The manner in which the Leafs’ core players performed on the whole not only caught the attention of their teammates, but has to be a springboard of sorts with the playoffs less than three weeks away.

In the third period, the Leafs pulled ahead after the game was tied 1-1 following 40 minutes. As much as those two goals made the difference, so did the determination of Marner, Matthews and John Tavares, who were all on the ice for the final minutes. Ditto defencemen Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

After the Panthers’ Sam Reinhart scored on a power play to get the visitors to within a goal of the Leafs at 17:22 of the third, Florida had just one shot on Toronto goalie Anthony Stolarz.

“They’re not there just to score,” Leafs coach Craig Berube said afterward of his star players. “They’re there to play 200 feet of hockey, whether it’s penalty killing, protecting a lead, playing good defence.

“You need that from everybody. Everybody. Doesn’t matter who it is. You need to guys (to buy) into sacrificing to play the other side of the puck.”

Everybody has to do it, no doubt, but it’s a much easier sell for Berube and his staff when the leadership group takes the initiative. For the most part, it’s what has been happening through 2024-25 in Berube’s first year behind the Leafs bench.

Without it, the Leafs aren’t in control of their first-place fate in the Atlantic Division with just seven games remaining.

“You saw in the last minute and a half, they stay out there and kill it and put it along the wall at the end of the game,” Knies said. “It’s important for those guys to do that kind of kind of thing and step up for us. It’s fun to watch, to be honest … the not pretty stuff.”

LOOSE LEAFS

The Leafs had Thursday off, so there were no updates on the status of centre David Kampf and defenceman Jake McCabe. Kampf didn’t play in the third period after leaving the game with an upper-body injury while McCabe went down the tunnel with an undisclosed issue with 70 seconds remaining in the game. The Leafs are scheduled to practise on Friday at the Ford Performance Centre … If Kampf is out, Nick Robertson, the only healthy forward who is being scratched, presumably would draw in. The simple solution for Berube would be to put Robertson on the fourth line and move Pontus Holmberg — and that’s what Berube should do. Slotting Robertson on the third line would disrupt the chemistry that Scott Laughton, Max Domi and Calle Jarnkrok are trying to build and it wouldn’t make a lot of sense to have two new-look lines at this point … Matthews is third in franchise history with 210 multi-point games, Darryl Sittler second with 244 and Mats Sundin first with 274. William Nylander is eighth with 156 and Tavares is 13th with 132 … Tavares won 72% of his faceoffs (13 of 18) against the Panthers. The rest of the Leafs centres — Matthews, Kampf and Domi — combined to win 50% (10 of 20) of their draws … Easton Cowan is off to a fine playoff start with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League. Cowan, the Leafs’ top prospect, had eight points (three goals and five assists) through the first three games, all Knights wins, of the best-of-seven first-round series against Owen Sound. The Knights are looking to complete a sweep of the Attack on Thursday night.

tkoshan@postmedia.com

X: @koshtorontosun