The Toronto Maple Leafs overtime win over the New Jersey Devils and former head coach Sheldon Keefe on Thursday was a big one in a number of ways. For starters, they knocked off their former bench boss and a tough Devils squad, but on top of that they ended a three-game slide earning two more points toward their Atlantic Division lead.
For Mitch Marner, however, the game was also an important one on a personal level. The 27-year-old tallied two assists to give him 62 points on the season in just 46 games, but his first helper of the game was also his 700th career point, becoming the fastest Maple Leafs player to that milestone in the history of the franchise.
Marner reached the milestone in just his 622nd career game — totalling 208 goals and 493 points over that span for 701 total points in his career to this point.
Mitch Marner recorded his 700th point in his 622nd game and became the fastest player in @MapleLeafs history to reach the milestone, passing Darryl Sittler (666 GP).
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 17, 2025
#NHLStats: https://t.co/Px7DmZSFGN pic.twitter.com/vnMhiRI4HN
He’s been help pointless just 12 times this season in the team’s 46 games thus far, including another 21 games where’s he’s had multiple points.
As for his career, Marner has never finished under 61 points in a season and has been above a point-per-game player for the past seven seasons including this season. While he’s never reached the 100-point plateau in a single season, Marner has been within 10 points of that mark three times — including a 99-point season in 2022-23.
As for the actual milestone marker, it was a primary assist on Auston Matthews’ game-tying goal late in the third period against the Devils, adding another assist on the game-winner in overtime to surpass the 700-point mark.
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Marner passes Darryl Sittler (700 points in 666 games) and Mats Sundin (700 points in 703 games) as the fastest player in franchise history to reach that milestone and is the sixth player in Maple Leafs history to record 700 points.
He’s now sixth on the franchise’s all-time list for points and sits just 12 points back of tying George Armstrong for fifth on said list. As for his draft year, Marner is second in career points amongst 2015 draftees — behind only Connor McDavid’s 1,046 career points in 687 career games.
As for this milestone, Matthews is just 17 points back of the 700 mark and has played in 29 fewer games than Marner. So, he could become the fastest Maple Leafs player to reach that mark when he reaches the milestone himself. But only time will tell.
Marner will look to add to his career totals against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday going into the contest just 10 points back of Nathan MacKinnon (72 points) for the NHL lead this season.
