The Toronto Maple Leafs Need to Split Up Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner After Eye-Opening Stats

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Chris Gerics
November 12, 2024 (5:27 PM)

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It may be time for Toronto to split up their long-time duo of Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews, as some new stats have shown they play more cohesively apart.

If you're the Toronto Maple Leafs, a lot of your success is due to your top-line duo of Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. They bring a certain aura to the ice that only very few in the league can also offer, but it hasn't led to any playoff success.

This is a crucial time for the team. Given that Mitch Marner is in the final year of his deal and there is no indication or sign he is going to come back, if Toronto wants to maximize Marner as much as possible this year...perhaps they need to stop playing him with Matthews.

Speaking on the Real Kyper and Bourne podcast, co-host Sam McKee laid out a flurry of stats about the Maple Leafs with Auston Matthews, and when he's on the shelf:

"The Toronto Maple Leafs have won seven straight games and are 40-19-2. The Maple Leafs are 11-for-26 on the powerplay in their last five games without Auston Matthews and is operating on a 30.9% clip on the powerplay without Matthews since 2016. That don't make no sense."

Co-host Justin Bourne chimed in about how the Maple Leafs' winning ways without Matthews are similar to those with him in the lineup, however conceded that the powerplay is something you cannot mess with:

"There is an element of pick the team up, he's not in we gotta do this, but then the powerplay to me is the only place where it's super relevant where it's like that tangibly changes how people think and feel and how it looks. There's something important to pull out of that. That to me is worth finding out."

Nick Kypreos also added that Mitch Marner's game completely changes too depending on Matthews:

"One other thing I want to note. Mitch Marner. It completely changes Mitch Marner as well. On the powerplay, he generally starts on the powerplay right, where we've seen him lost in a bumper position, now all of a sudden he's found himself most often than not walking into the blueline, there's no way to know where he's going to go with the puck, he disguises it as well as anybody. He's also on the powerplay but in general a completely different player with Auston. his numbers are actually better."

Bourne simply added a solution:

"Is that not justification for you to say can we have these guys do it without each other and push them on separate lines?"

Kypreos agreed, saying there is something to look into when it comes to splitting the duo up.

So How Good Is Mitchell Marner Without Auston Matthews?

Marner has 70 career points with Matthews out of the lineup, so given that's 61 games over his career, those numbers are very, very good. It proves Marner isn't just Matthews' sidekick, and can facilitate any offense regardless if he has a 69-goal scorer or not alongside him.

Marner also feels different on the ice. It's almost like a wave of confidence hits Marner and he kicks it into second or third gear, controlling the offense and making opponents look silly:

Marner has 659 points in 592 games and has consistently been the catalyst for the Maple Leafs offense. His elite stickhandling and playmaking made him one of the league's best, and his 461 career assists show that he likes to be a team player.

Toronto's success with Mitch Marner without Auston Matthews shouldn't be overlooked. While it wouldn't be ideal to split up a duo that has played so long it feels almost incredulous to even suggest it; the results don't lie.

Toronto is rolling right now, and if they don't want to hit a brick wall, they need to separate their two stars for the betterment of the other 21 players on the roster.

POLL
Is it time for the Maple Leafs to split up Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner
▢ No, you can't ruin what they have!
▢ Yes finally! Both deserve their own spot!

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