Justin Bourne penned an excellent piece dissecting the play of the Maple Leafs‘ little dynamo, Mitch Marner, and attempted to find justification in the notion of Marner being defensively challenged early on in his sophomore season. He broke down several of the intricacies attributed to Marner — some items that can be coached out, and some inherent in hockey DNA.
As an aside, Marner has been used lightly on the PK — 2:09 in total so far this season — and it would make some sense to have a scoring threat element on the PK unit to take advantage of turnovers and quick breaks the other way on broken plays at the top of the zone.