How it Started

Mitch Marner was born in Markham, Ontario on May 5, 1997. He spent his early childhood years in Clarington. Mitchell started skating at the early age of 2 with the Mini Blades program in Newcastle. Mitch and his dad spent as much time as they could at parent tot honing his skills. At the age of 4, Mitchell began playing hockey with the Malvern Vipers. The Vipers were owned by Stu Hyman whose son was just traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Mitchell played for Malvern for 2 years. At 5 Mitch played for the Malvern Vipers super six team winning every tournament they entered that year.

Mitchell returned home to Clarington at the age of 6 and tried out for the Novice AAA team. After leading the tryouts in scoring, it was decided by the Clarington coach and executive he was not mentally ready to play at that age. Mitch then went to Lindsay Wolves and played for the Novice AAA team as a 6 year old. Mitch returned back to Clarington as a 7 year old and led the team in scoring with 186 points that year. Clarington won the OMHA silver medal. The next year Clarington decided that no players were allowed to play a year up anymore. Mitch moved to Whitby Wildcats the next year and as an underager led Whitby in scoring and to another OMHA silver medal. Losing the Gold medal game 1-0 to the York Simcoe Express led by Connor McDavid.

Some of Mitchells accolades while in Whitby and Clarington included MVP at Preston International tournament and Silver Stick First Line All Star.

Mitchell also made the Toronto Bulldogs Brick team. Although the team did not have a great tournament, Mitch finished tied with Mathew Barzal for the scoring lead.

Mitchell played with Whitby for 1 more year before being moving to the Vaughan Kings of the GTHL. Mitch continued to play a year up and Vaughan was coached by Dave Dammizio. The team had finished 11th the year before but with Mitchell's addition, Dante Salitaro and a few others, Vaughan finished a respectable 4th the next year. During the final year of Mitch playing a year up, Vaughan added Micheal Dal Cole. Mitch and Mike led Vaughan to the GTHL Championship in Peewee. Mitch recorded an incredible 185 points as an underager with the help of his team mates.

Mitchell played another year of Peewee at his own age and 2 more years with Vaughan before playing his final year with Don mills Flyers.

Marner played for the Don Mills Flyers where he recorded 86 pts in 55 games. Once the Flyers were eliminated in the playoffs, Mitchell became a call up by the St. Mikes Buzzers. As a 15 year old, Mitch was 1st star in game 5 and followed it up with the 1st star in game 7 of the Buckland cup finals vs Newmarket. Mitchell was drafted 19th overall by the London Knights. Lindsay Hofford made the call for London. Lindsay had been a part of Mitchell's hockey life since 6 years old. Mitch had played for Pro hockey since 6 till he was 14. Lindsay got to know Mitch through Pro Hockey and the European Tours. Mitch won the MVP at the Big Apple tournament which included, Konecny, Barzal, Stephens, White, Bracco and many more players who have become elite players.

Marner received a scholarship offer from the University of Michigan but elected to sign with the London Knights who drafted him in the first round of the 2013 OHL Priority Selection. At his rookie season with the Knights, Marner registered 59 points in 64 games which was enough to make him the runner up for the OHL rookie of the year. Marner was named to the OHL First All-Star team during the 2014-15 season. He also participated at the 2014 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament for Canada, winning a gold medal in the process as well as finishing as the leading scorer for Canada. Mitchell won 2 MVP awards during the tournament including the Gold Medal game.

Mitch followed up his rookie campaign with a staggering 126 points in 63 games and another 16 points in 7 playoff games. He was the fastest Knight in history to record 40 goals as a 17 year old. He also recorded 5 hat tricks and had four 6 point games for the Knights.

Mitch Marner was selected 4th overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2015 NHL Draft.