LAS VEGAS – If the Conn Smythe Trophy were handed out today, the engraver wouldn’t need to squint, hesitate, or double‑check the spelling. 

He’d simply carve Mitch Marner - yes, that Mitch Marner - into the silver and call it a night.

Imagine telling a Leafs fan that two years ago. They’d have laughed, cried or thrown a waffle.

But here we are, watching a player once branded as a shrinking violet in springtime suddenly bulldoze the narrative.

And it’s happening on the biggest, meanest, most unforgiving stage in the sport: the Stanley Cup Playoffs - the tournament that exposes pretenders, humbles stars and eats reputations for breakfast.

Yet Marner is dining on the pressure.

He leads the post-season in scoring and plus‑minus. He kills penalties like he’s auditioning for a Selke reel. He’s excelled at both centre and wing. He’s one shorthanded assist shy of tying Wayne Gretzky’s single‑spring record of five. He’s turned Brett Howden into the NHL’s leading playoff goal scorer with 10. He’s assisted on two of Howden’s three game‑winners and has two game‑winning goals of his own.

He’s doing everything short of driving the........

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