Mitch Marner Goes Cold While the 3 Players Brought in by the Maple Leafs to Replace Him Begin to Heat Up

While it was a slower start to the season than the Maple Leafs may have liked, the team finally got back into the win column on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday night, securing a 4-3 OT win against the Buffalo Sabres.

A part of the reason for such a cold start in Toronto has been the inability to the Leafs to find any consistent chemistry following the departure of Mitch Marner, who was a significant contributor at 5v5, on the power play and on the penalty kill.

Marner is off to a decent start with the Vegas Golden Knights, notching 10 points through his first 9 games. However, that point total doesn't tell the whole story. Marner has zero points through his last two games, and has not registered a shot on goal, has not landed a hit, and is a -1 over that span.

Originally, it may not have made sense for Leafs Nation to take notice of Marner's recent struggles. Through the Leafs' first 7 games, they hadn't received a lot from the trio of players who were brought in to replace his production.

Matias Maccelli, Dakota Joshua and Nicolas Roy had combined for just 2 goals and 5 points in the team's first 7 games. Now, that all appears to be turning around for the trio, as hockey content creator Nealer points out below:

Granted, it's early on in the season and Marner is still building chemistry with his teammates. However, it is worth noting that Marner has already been demoted off of the first line and away from Jack Eichel, shifting down to the Golden Knights' second line with Tomas Hertl and Pavel Dorofeyev.

Meanwhile in Toronto, the Leafs have all of Joshua, Maccelli and Roy playing in the middle six, and really starting to find their groove. All 3 bring different elements to the lineup, with Maccelli acting as a playmaker, and Joshua and Roy acting as secondary scoring threats and sandpaper.

Obviously, you're not going to be able to package Joshua, Roy and Maccelli together to acquire a Mitch Marner, but these three players have been very useful for the Leafs, and make them a much deeper team. So, in that sense, the Leafs and GM Brad Treliving have done well here under the circumstances.