Mitch Marner Has To Be On Senators’ Radar, Notes On Hockey Parents

Mitch Marner currently leads the OHL in scoring. And for a 17-year-old who fell out of the top 10 in his OHL draft year, that’s pretty good.

Obviously others have missed time due to the world juniors, but putting that aside Marner’s stat-line is still pretty impressive. For a kid where size has always been the mark on his game, a 5foot10 Marner has  82 points in 40 games. An impressive stat-line for a sub-18 year-old player.

What seems surprising, is that the Senators could be in the area of drafting the OHL’s leading scorer this off-season. Ottawa is likely out of the top 3 race of Hanafin, McDavid, and Eichel. At this point, it’s looking as though players like Mitch Marner or other 2nd tier top prospects could be available around the 5-8 drafting spot.

It’s bizarre that we could see Marner could go this low… as the OHL’s leading scorer. Especially with a guy like Lawson Crouse gaining attention based solely on his size.

The journey to the OHL wasn’t easy for Marner. I came across an interesting report from the CBC a while back, looking at hockey parents, and interestingly, Mitch Marner and his dad.

Take a look at that video. It appears as those Mr. Marner was one of “those” hockey parents. You know the type…

The report features Mr. Marner telling Mitch “To Fu**ing Skate” at one point, and as an observer from the outside this can be taken many ways. Perhaps it’s that fire that inspires success, but can easily be viewed on the negative as well.

One thing that is for sure is that hockey parents in minor hockey have often crossed the line leading to off-ice incidents and even further.

Mr. Marner’s take on hockey parents is interesting in this report

Myself like a lot of other dads we probably get too involved in the game. A lot of people have this vision that their kid is going to go somewhere, I think if we could stay a little calmer it would be a better atmosphere as well.

The report may paint him as that hard-nosed hockey father, but the compassion and understanding is seen as well. Either way, it’s clear that Marner played under extreme pressure throughout his minor hockey career. Let’s remember, Mitch is 12-years-old at the time this report was published.

Interesting to see a case like this where the minor hockey dad’s pressure led to a child not only making the OHL, but dominating it. Marner is a sure thing to go top 10 after posting what’s sure to be an amazing season in London.

PHOTO CREDIT: Valerie Wutti | Blitzen Photography