Marner Emerges As Conn Smythe Favorite In The Spotlight

Mitch Marner is back in the kind of conversation that can make a contract room feel very expensive very fast. The Conn Smythe debate always gets weird when the playoffs start handing out narrative juice along with points, and Marner has clearly done enough to get people talking. That makes this less about a trophy race in the abstract and more about whether his postseason run is building the strongest case in the room.