After a year of bouncing around the league, Mikko Rantanen is now putting on a show in the playoffs.

On Saturday night, the Dallas Stars trailed the Colorado Avalanche 2-0 with 12 minutes remaining in the third period of Game 7. It was the kind of do-or-die moment you can’t train for, and Rantanen stepped up to the task against his former team. The Finnish winger came up with back-to-back goals, assisted on the go-ahead marker from Wyatt Johnston, then completed the hat trick with an empty-netter to seal Dallas’ place in the second round.

While he had a slow start to the series with only one point in the first four games, he kicked it into high gear when it really counted, netting eleven points in Games 5 to 7. When push came to shove, Rantanen got it done and boosted his team to the next round.

It’s hard to say the same for Mitch Marner. There’s no denying that Marner is one of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ best players through the regular season, consistently well over a point-per-game player, including finally hitting the 100-point mark this year. However, he has long faced criticism for his inability to show up in critical moments.

Take Toronto’s opening series against Ottawa, for example. Marner had six points in the opening three games, as they took a commanding 3-0 lead. But then, through three potential series-clinching contests, he had only two assists. Game 5 in particular stood out, where the Leafs failed to get on the scoreboard at all. Look through his past playoff performances, and a clear pattern emerges, even in his strongest playoff years, the majority of his points come at the beginning of the series, and not at the end when the Leafs need to make a push to get through.

With that in mind, Rantanen and Marner are otherwise very comparable players. They’re both highly-skilled, former first-round picks, point-producing wingers in their late 20s. And in fact, earlier this year, the Carolina Hurricanes asked about Marner in a possible deal to send Rantanen to the Leafs. It looked at the time that the Leafs were considering all options, and that included Rantanen slotting into Marner’s spot if the Toronto native decided not to sign long-term.

Rantanen ended up in Dallas, where he signed an eight-year, $96 million contract extension, with an AAV of $12 million. Based on the way Rantanen is playing now for the Stars in clutch moments, he’s setting the market for what a playmaker like that is worth. And with Marner approaching free agency on July 1st, he’ll want to take note of what Rantanen is doing down in Texas.

If Marner hopes to get $12 million+ annually from the Leafs this off-season, or from any team for that matter, he’ll need to prove his abilities go beyond the regular season. With the big test of the Florida Panthers waiting for Marner & Toronto, he’ll have to show he can get on the scoreboard when it really counts and power Toronto to the next round if he wants to get paid the big bucks, just like Rantanen did last night.