Report: Leafs considering moving Mitch Marner to defence

With injuries piling up on defence for the Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe has been forced to play veteran forwards Calle Jarnkrok and Alex Kerfoot on defense for parts of the past two games. Blueliners Jake Muzzin, Jordie Benn, Timothy Liljegren and Carl Dahlstrom have all gone down with injury, leaving the thin Leafs' blueline even thinner. Enter: Mitch Marner.

Coach Keefe told reporters earlier today that the team has been considering moving Marner from forward to defense, depending on certain game situations.

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Honestly, I think this is a smart move.

I've long said that NHL teams, and especially NHL coaches, do a pretty poor job of using the talent that they have available to them. If you look around at other pro sports, you'll see coaches sprinkling their star players throughout the action depending on game situations. I honestly feel like NHL coaches fall back on the same old tropes too often and it often ends up biting them in the end. Sure, Marner may not end up on any Norris Trophy ballots this season, but he can provide offense from the back end like few other players on the Leafs' roster. When you're down a goal late in the game and you need someone with the ability to simply skate the puck cleanly out of the defensive zone who would you want out there, Marner or Jake Muzzin? The answer is pretty obvious to me. 

Now, obviously teams have been utilizing forwards on the blueline during powerplays for decades now, but it's rare to see a forward play defence during regular 5 on 5 play. Obviously we've seen big boys like Dustin Byfuglien and Brent Burns flip flop positions over the course of their careers, but I think you have to go back to Sergei Fedorov for an example of a player who managed to play both positions during 5 on 5 play. Oh... and who happened to be Fedorov's coach? None other than the legendary Scott Bowman. My question is if Bowman utilized this kind of strategy, why has it taken over 20 years for any other coach to give this a shot?

Frankly, I'm excited to see how this all plays out. Stay tuned.