Mitch Marner’s two-way play has allowed Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe to experiment with a five-forward power play for longer than he had anticipated.
Mitch Marner loved playing defense as a kid and contemplated playing the position at a competitive level but his level of skating pushed against his decision to put playing on the back end as his focus.
"I trained a lot with backward skating and stuff like that but I was better at forward and skating forward than I was backwards," the Toronto Maple Leafs forward recalled. "So that’s kind of how ultimately that decision was made."
Well into his seventh season in the NHL with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Marner has been called upon at times to play defense in certain situations.
The seeds were planted in training camp when Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe had a conversation with Marner about taking some shifts at even strength.
The rationale? It was a way for the Leafs to trot out a different formation for when his team was in need of a goal. Typically, if they found themselves tied to trailing in a game.
Marner accepted the assignment with no hesitation.
"Some guys have those skill sets, but they push back on it," Keefe said of the ask. "They’re reluctant and Mitch is all for it and you can see that in how he just steps right in and does a good job there for us."
Although Marner was used sparingly on defense at even strength earlier in the season, Keefe turned some heads when he deployed a five-forward top power play against the New York Rangers on Dec. 15 and has consistently stuck with the formation since.
Marner replaced the lone defender that would typically quarterback the top unit as the puck distributor and carrier of the breakout.
"I think it's just nice because you can see the ice pretty well and you can see the guys and the penalty killers and what they want to do and kind of know beforehand," Marner said of the look. "For me, it's just trying to read off of that and trying to see what I can make happen for our guys to get the best opportunities towards the net."
The look which features Toronto's top skilled forwards (Auston Matthews, William Nylander, John Tavares) with Marner at the point and Michael Bunting in the bumper was initially intended to be for situations when the team is in need of a goal. But Keefe elected to keep rolling with the group of five with defensemen Morgan Rielly, and most recently Rasmus Sandin were unavailable to quarterback PP1.
But now that Rielly has been back for a couple of games and Sandin is set to return on Tuesday against the Blues, Keefe said the team will revert back to four forwards and one defenseman on PP1 in situations in which they are leading.
"If we had Morgan and if we had a lead, we would have went with one defenseman and I think we’ll see a little bit of that along the way," Keefe added.
There's no question that Marner's ability to defend is the main reason why the Leafs are comfortable with this look. A feature forward on the team's penalty kill, Marner twice showed great presence and positioning as the lone forward on a 3-on-5 penalty kill in December. First, against the Dallas Stars on Dec. 6, he was able to stop a scoring chance with his body after losing his stick.
On Dec. 22 against the Philadelphia Flyers, Marner was able to kill a significant chunk of a 3-on-5 with some cross-ice passes in his own zone without a mistake.
"It’s next-level stuff," Keefe said of Marner after the game. "Not many guys are processing the game in that manner."
Marner is not going to be changing to become a full-time defenseman anytime soon, but the rationale to put a forward in a defensive situation makes sense. Particularly because of the trust in Marner should the opposing penalty kill break in with a scoring chance.
"He obviously has a great two-way game so with him back there we trust him in case something goes wrong and I think he walks the blue line pretty well for a forward," Bunting said of Marner.
But as the calendar flips to 2023, the Leafs have a pretty good handle on what kind of team they are. They don't have an offensively-gifted defenseman like Cale Makar of Colorado Avalanche nor do they have an Adam Fox like the New York Rangers do, but Toronto can sense the shift of a dynamic defenseman who can play a type of rover and jump in a play with more of an offensive flair. One they simply do not have.
“You look at the way Cale Makar plays the game, there’s a lot of young kids that are growing up that want to look like that,” Keefe said in September. “I think there’s just so much opportunity there, but how close we are to making it on a full-time basis, I’m not quite sure.”
So to have the defensive trust the Leafs have in Marner, it makes sense that the Leafs are sticking with five forwards on the power play.
But it's more like Mitch Marner and four forwards.
"Maybe if there is a time where you do need to put a defenseman out there the defenseman doesn’t necessarily need to go at the top because Mitch is just so confident there," Keefe said. "Or you can create some switches and rotations that allow Mitch to get up there and be very comfortable in that spot and the players comfortable reading off of him."