Mitch Marner reveals which NHL award he is chasing.

At the end of the day hockey is a team sport and with the ultimate objective being the Stanley Cup Championship it really does have to be all about the team if you're going to overcome every other team in the league. That being said it would be naive to think that even with this obvious reality that players still don't thirst for some of the league's individual awards, and Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner is apparently no different.

Marner was a member of what Sportsnet dubbed an "NHL Rewind Party" on Saturday where several members of the Maple Leafs including Marner, Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas, fellow Leafs teammate Jason Spezza and Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe, made an appearance. The cast of Leafs was on hand as the network replayed a game that the Leafs had played earlier in the season against the Hurricanes and they discussed the game itself as well as a variety of other topics during the broadcast. Among those topics were the aforementioned NHL awards and it was during that broadcast that Marner himself revealed which award he was personally chasing. 

Marner was asked about potentially winning the NHL's scoring race down the line, but the Leafs forward instead pointed to a much more defensively-focused award, the Selke.

“I don’t think scoring race — I mean, it would be great to win that. The one that I always really kind of set a mind on and set a goal on is the Selke, the two-way player [award],” said Marner as per Sportsnet. “I think that one is something that I always want my name to be a part of, and my name to be chatted about. That one has a lot of special players in it that do a lot on both ends of the ice. It’s something that would be great to have your name thrown around in as well.

“But any kind of award you win, it’s a lot to do with the guys you play with every single night, and a lot of the guys you’ve played with since Game 1.”

Keep in mind that both his head coach and general manager were on hand for this so it may have influenced his response, however I will say that Marner did seem quite genuine when making this statement.