The first time Mitch Marner crossed paths with Mark Hunter, well, even he admits he didn’t leave the best of impressions.

“Let’s just say I didn’t have one of my better games,” Marner said, playing down the moment.

But the memory remains etched in Marner’s brain to this day. About how he struggled for his Don Mills Flyers minor midgets on that particular occasion. About how he was approached after the game by Hunter, who was the general manager of the OHL’s London Knights at the time. And about the words that Hunter spoke to him, ones that still resonate with the young forward.

“I remember the first time we met,” Marner said. “We talked afterward and he said we’ll see what happens when the draft comes along.”

When it did arrive, Marner’s phone rang. It was the Knights.

“On the day of the draft, when the 19th pick was coming up they called and said: ‘We are going to try and take you,”’ Marner said. “And that’s what happened.”

A few years later, Marner, 18, hopes the team Hunter now works for decides to dial him up, too. For Marner, who finished second in OHL scoring with 126 points, such an outcome would be a dream come true later this month during the 2015 NHL draft in Sunrise, Fla.

In his mind, we’re guessing it would go something like this: “Hi Mitch, this is Mark. You obviously know the Maple Leafs hold the fourth pick. And we’re planning to take you.

“Welcome to the Leafs. Congratulations.”

Will it, in fact, play out that way, transforming his greatest hockey wish into reality?

Prior to the NHL draft lottery, the conventional thinking among many scouts and other hockey people was that, if teams picked in the inverse order of their regular season finish, Erie’s Connor McDavid would go to Buffalo, Boston University’s Jack Eichel to Arizona and Boston College defenceman Noah Hanifin to the blueline-thin Edmonton Oilers, leaving the Leafs to choose between Marner and Erie’s Dylan Strome.

Then the Oilers won the McDavid sweepstakes and, with that, the dynamics of the draft certainly have changed.

With the Sabres set to scoop up Eichel second overall — a nice fit, especially since he played at the recent world championship for incoming Buffalo coach Dan Bylsma, an assistant with Team USA — word around the league is that the Coyotes, shut out of the top two picks, are warming up to the concept of taking Strome.

Under that scenario, the Leafs would have a decision to make. Do they go for the third-ranked Hanifin with his promising upside on the blue line? Do they add Marner to bolster their offensive punch up front? Are forward Mathew Barzal or defenceman Ivan Provorov in play as some scouts suggest? Or, will the Leafs trade down in order to accrue more picks?

We do know this: You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who sees the full upside of Marner more than Hunter.

“Mark and I are pretty close,” he said. “Will that make a difference when the draft comes around? Hey, there are no guarantees. But he knows my game, he knows what I’ve done and he knows what I can potentially do as I develop and get better.

“Am I hoping that plays into getting drafted by the Leafs, the team I’ve always grown up cheering for? Of course.”

Marner adds that, since the day Hunter’s Knights selected him, “Mark has been great to my family and me. He showed us everything, He had us down for a couple of playoff games and gave us an idea what it would be like to be in London. Since then, we’ve loved it there.”

Eight months ago, Hunter left the Knights to accept a reported multi-million dollar offer to become the director of player personnel for the Leafs. And yet, even with his new gig, he would still seek out Marner for a chat whenever he was scouting a Knights game or if he was visiting brother Dale, the team’s coach.

“When he comes back, we spend a couple of minutes talking there. We ask how each other is doing and stuff like that,” Marner said.

“Obviously, with him being with the Leafs now is a different position than with him being with the Knights. It’s a different league up there. He’s always telling stories about the guys up there and what they go through.

“It’s nice having someone up there who really knows you, who has taken a chance on you before and hopefully might again if the opportunity presents itself.”

An M&M reunion? By this time next month, we’ll know if Mark and Mitch are actually having one, this time with the Leafs.