Re: Could Marner possibly receive Defense eligibility?
Honestly, coin toss. Marner's defense as a forward is actually amazing for his size. The amount he has covered a pinching dman well is actually really fun to watch. However, I don't think he can BE a defenseman for an extended time in corners and stuff. He can def be a dman on a 'non 5on5' situation, and he has already. Leafs deployed a 4man forward PP in OT a couple of times (Matthews, Nylander, Marner, JT) and Marner was the dman.
He can def be that role effectively for short stints early in the season especially when teams are rusty and haven't figured out how to defend that situation properly. If the situation arises and Marner gets some highlights of offense and defense, Yahoo might jump on it for the meme's too. P7 has it pretty bang on, the fact that it's Toronto raises the chances, and the fact it's a star raises the chances.
If he starts shifts on D where he physically lines up in a D spot, with no other D on the ice, there's a legit argument to get it added especially if it's 'even-strength' (3on3, 4on4, 5on5).
12 Team, H2H, Keep 6 (in Bold)
G, A, Pts, PPP, FW, SOG, Hits, Blocks
W, Saves, S%, GAA, Game Started
2C, 2LW, 2RW, 4D, 1Util, 2G, 5BN, 2IR, 1IR+, 1NA
C: Horvat, Trocheck
LW: J. Robertson, Byfield (C), Guenther
RW: Pavelski (C), Giroux (C), Svechnikov (LW)
D: Fox, Makar, Bouchard, Morrissey, Gudas
Util: Meier (LW, RW)
G: Oettinger, Georgiev, Samsonov, Woll