Mitch Marner chuckles about it now, the infamous list of lazy Maple Leafs teammates that Mike Babcock had him put together during Marner’s NHL rookie season in 2016-17.
Marner appeared on former teammate Connor Carrick’s podcast this week and Carrick asked: What has been among Marner’s greatest learning opportunities as a Leaf?
“I think one is to never grade your teammates on their work ethic in practice,” Marner said with a laugh. “That one is definitely the top. I was really young, I was really nervous, I didn’t know what to do, so I did it. Next thing I knew, it got reported to the team (by Babcock).”
The Toronto Sun was the first to report the incident last November, not long after Babcock was fired. At the bottom of Marner’s list were veterans James van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak and Nazem Kadri.
“Bozie, JVR and Naz have been great throughout my career,” Marner said. “At first, they were jiving me about it, because I didn’t know it was going to get shown to them. I think (Babcock’s) lesson was trying to show the older guys that I’m a young guy and I’m looking up to those three. It didn’t come out that way, but that’s what the goal was.”
During the podcast, Marner also revealed the NHL trophy he would be keen to win.
“The award that would be really cool to be acknowledged for is the Selke (as the best defensive forward),” Marner said. “The names on the Selke are the guys everyone is scared of on the ice.”
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