Marner’s Big Weekend, a Bulldog Impresses and Other Prospect News

We wrote a lot about Mitch Marner and his scoring exploits over the past three days, but let’s dive in again just in case you tuned out over the weekend and need a refresher.

Marner was instrumental in three London Knights wins in three days, scoring a hat trick in both Friday’s and Saturday’s games. In all, Marner scored six goals and 11 points in three games. You don’t need a complicated visual to tell you that’s insane. 

Here’s, in my humble opinion, the prettiest of all his goals – his second marker (shorthanded, too) in Saturday’s 7-2 win over the Ottawa 67’s…

Marner is officially one of the hottest players in all of Canadian Major Junior, with seven straight multi-point games and 22 points over that span.

Ok, so he didn’t have two hat tricks, but Frolunda’s Andreas Johnson also potted himself three-goals-in-a-game this past week. The Leafs’ former seventh-round pick came up big in a 6-3 win over Skelleftea on Thursday and now has 21 points in 24 games. I can’t wait to see how this kid looks live when he makes the jump to North America next year.

We haven’t spoken a whole lot about Toronto’s two University of Minnesota-Duluth prospects this season, but Tony Cameranesi and Dominic Toninato have now given us reason to talk (although, not for the same reasons).

Cameranesi has been particularly strong this season and had himself a great weekend in two big UMD wins over Western Michigan. In Friday night’s game, a 7-0 blowout, Cameranesi failed to find the scoresheet but put a team-high seven shots on net. On Saturday, this time a 6-2 win, Cameranesi scored a goal and added three assists. In 13 games this season, the former fifth-round pick has five goals and 17 points. It’s good to see Cameranesi clocking in at well over a point-per-game pace, even if he is in his Senior year. The Leafs will have to make a decision on him in the coming months.

Toninato, on the other hand, isn’t quite breaking out in the way many would have hoped. After scoring 26-in-34 as a Sophomore last season, Toninato only has seven points in 15 games so far this year. Toninato fell right out of our TLN Top 20 Leafs Prospects in the preseason and I can’t imagine his stat line this season will change that, even with that Michael Grabner trade with the New York Islanders that sent a number of eligible prospects out the door.

Dmytro Timashov, who I imagine will be joining William Nylander on Sweden’s WJC squad later this month, had himself a solid weekend. On Friday night, in particular, Timashov scored two goals and three assists in a high-scoring 7-6 loss to the Shawinigan Cataractes. He followed that up with an assist the next day for a two-game, six-point weekend, and now sits sixth in QMJHL scoring with 51 points in 28 games. 

Those are impressive numbers for sure, but it’s not about impressing your teammates or your friends or even your ma and pa. There’s only one dude you need to impress, and Timashov is succeeding.