He is no where near “the next kucherov”. There’s two things they share, both RW and both primarily playmakers. Kucherov is significantly better at both. He turns a 75 point player in Brayden Point into a 95 point 50 goal scorer. Marner played with Matthews and had him pacing for his second worst statistical year since entering the league.
Marner is no where near as deceptive as kucherov, kucherov on the pp is as deadly a 1-2 counter as Mcdavid. His famous slap pass into the slot, his ability to fool goalies, he’s actually good shot, he’s a 35 goal career guy vs a 26 goal guy in Marner. Kucherov is a better goal scorer in the playoffs than Marner is in the regular season
Kucherov has also got that dirtiness in him. He’s not afraid to go after a guy, whether it’s dirty or not. Marner is afraid to throw a punch at a guy pummeling his face in, can’t say too much though because Matthews got his shit ran by stamkos and nylander thinks a face wash is a fight. Tavares is too “civil” to fight.
Marner isn’t going to “burn” us by becoming better on another team. He will only do that if he goes to a team where he’s surrounded by more talent than ours and his Casper the friendly ghost act won’t matter.
All this is spot on. I've heaped a ton of praise on Marner over the last two seasons, it looked like he became a better player, improved his shot etc. but after game 3 in Florida, my opinion of him as a player took a huge hit.
When it's the biggest playoff game of the year, you're a veteran player in your prime and according to many people the best player on the team, the "engine" of the team etc. and instead of raising your level of play and leading by example, you're arguably the worst player on the ice and play arguably the worst game of your entire career, that screams mental weakness to me.
Marner's a great player but unfortunately it's hard to believe that he'll ever be able to raise his level of play in the playoffs the way Gilmour did in 93 or the way Kucherov has done in the past or the way Tkachuk is doing right now. If he's not traded I hope he proves me wrong but I don't see it happening and let's be real here, he's only got a couple more peak years left and if he can't do it when he's at his peak, the chances of him doing it when he starts to decline aren't good.
A few fanboys here like to go on about how he's one of the greatest Maple Leafs ever and how he'll be in the HOF and they'll go on about statues and whatever else but I'd trade all that if he could be one of the greatest players not in Maple Leafs history, but in the NHL for even just one season. That's just me though, some people seem to be content with regular season success and that's fine, he's a joy to watch when he's on, I get that. It's a team game though and I'm all about the playoffs so regular season points are a meh burger to me and as the playoff losses pile up, it's getting harder and harder to GAF about anything that happens during the regular season.
