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Maple Leafs sign Mitch Marner to entry-level contract

SUNRISE, FL - JUNE 26: Mitchell Marner poses for a portrait after being selected fourth overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs during Round One of the 2015 NHL Draft at BB&T Center on June 26, 2015 in Sunrise, Florida. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed savior/No. 4 overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft Mitch Marner to a three-year entry-level contract. Wait, that doesn’t have the same ring to it as the dude in Edmonton. 

Whatever, Marner is the last of the top-five picks in the 2015 NHL Draft to sign his entry-level deal. He’s not exactly a huge-named guy like say Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel. But the winger did have 44 goals and 126 points last year for the London Knights.

While he has prodigious offensive skill, by all accounts, he’s going to have to grow into his 5-foot-11, 160-pound body. Look at that above silly puck-holding photo from the draft. It looks very ... kid-like.

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Still, with him it’s all about skill, and in today’s speed-oriented game, that’s mucho important.

Via Hockey’s Future:

One of the more pure offensive talents in the 2015 NHL Draft is London Knights forward Mitch Marner. The slightly-built winger was a scoring dynamo for the Knights in 2014-15, but ultimately lost out on the OHL scoring title on the last day of the season after Dylan Strome‘s offensive outburst in his season finale. With a fluid game based in part on creative distribution of the puck, Marner is one of the most offensively gifted players in the draft class and a solid pick at this spot.

Via the National Post, while at the draft, Maples Leafs director of player personnel Mark Hunter didn’t say Marner wouldn’t play with Toronto next season. But considering Marner’s slightish frame. That seems unlikely at this time.

(Sort of) welcome to the NHL Mitch. We’ll see you in Toronto … in one or two years.

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!