Mitch Marner's Reps Reportedly Air Concerns About Marner Being Overplayed by the Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs are in the midst of a very important season, the first of Craig Berube's tenure as the new head coach in town. Heading into tonight's game against Seattle, the Leafs held a 5-4-1 record through their first 10 games, with the aforementioned Marner playing a larger role than originally expected.

Marner currently leads the Leafs in points in 11 points through 10 games (1G, 10A). He is also far and away the leader in ice time among all forwards in Toronto, with an average of 21:42 per game. The next closest being Auston Matthews at just 20:52 per game.

The problem for Marner's camp isn't that he's playing over 21 minutes per game, it's that on 4 occasions in the team's first 10 games, Marner has played well over 22 minutes, including a season-high 26:12 against Boston last weekend.

The full report comes from TSN's Darren Dreger on Thursday's edition of Insider Trading, which can be viewed at the link provided below:

Recently, Berube addressed Marner's ice time, stating that since Marner is such an excellent penalty killer and also a primary power play contributor, it's really easy to overplay the versatile winger and that sometimes, like last Saturday, he goes a little overboard and doesn't control Marner's ice time as much as he maybe should.

However, now that he's aware that it's an issue, the ice time should begin to come back down to earth a little bit -- especially with William Nylander not only wanting more ice time, but also expressing an interest in becoming a penalty killer, as he was at times last season.

Marner, being in a contract year, should probably relish the extra opportunities he's being given. Additional ice time could lead to additional production, which could inflate his value. His representatives pushing for less ice time may end up being counterproductive in the long run. Of course, being a marquee winger in the NHL, perhaps his reps just don't want to risk injury, which could impact his overall value negatively.

Whatever the case for the concerns being aired, now that it's out there, it will be interesting to see how Marner's ice is managed by the Leafs moving forward.