Toronto Maple Leafs: Marlies Power Rankings Part Three

Much has changed recently in how the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Marlies conduct business.

Welcome back!

With training camp on the horizon, my 2018 Marlies power rankings continue along their gradual rollout today with part three. For the sake of time, we’ll jump right in, although not before a brief refresher on the list’s criteria.

• Rankings are comprised of the following: role, value, immediate impact, and NHL potential. This means an effective AHL-lifer may place higher than a prospect RIGHT NOW, but only because their role is secured.
• The only players included are those listed on the Marlies roster as of August 18th. Guys like Travis Dermott, Justin Holl, and Andreas Johnsson won’t be on it.
• If you disagree, please tell me how wrong I am using the most profanity possible.

Let’s get to it!

9. Martin Marincin

I want to kick part 3 off with a fact:

During the 2017-18 season, Martin Marincin was one of the AHL’s best defencemen.

Whether you read that as a good thing or a bad thing is up to you.

Set aside your preconceived beliefs of Leaf-Marincin for a moment. They serve no purpose here. We all remember Marincin’s bevvy of turnovers, brain gaffes, and meltdowns from whenever he so much as mistakenly wandered into the general vicinity of a puck.

Everyone does. That dead horse has been beaten for so long it’s aged into the saltiest of jerkies.

This isn’t about Leafs-Marincin. It’s about Marlies-Marincin. And Marlies-Marincin was really, really good.

Placing so high on this list serves many purposes, most notably as a glowing testament to the player development prowess of the Marlies’ staff.

By no means should Marincin, who, less than 12 months ago, had somehow excommunicated himself from Mike Babcock‘s good graces before washing out of the NHL entirely at age-26, crack the top-10.

Those who follow his path are usually never heard from again, sentenced to spend their latter years toiling away on bus rides through the middle-American cities housing Dunder Mifflin branches.

But Marincin didn’t do that.

Taking his demotion in stride, the native of Kosice, Slovakia met with the coaching staff prior to his debut and formulated a plan, with focus on improving the more deficient areas of Marincin’s game via increases in both responsibility and leeway.

It didn’t take an expert to tell you that the bulk of Marincin’s struggles stemmed from an ability, or rather lack thereof, to carry the puck. At the time, suggesting that Marincin treated the puck like a grenade would be paying a major disservice to how human beings naturally react when faced with the possibility of being blown up.

He was bad, is what I’m trying to say

Marincin couldn’t truly improve until this issue was addressed. The Marlies staff were aware of this, specifically encouraging Marincin to jump into the rush whenever possible early in the year, and, if the opportunity called for it, even cheat down the offensive zone wall.

All of which being things he’d previously lacked the confidence to try.

Results came, slowly but surely, as Marincin began exuding an on-ice confidence absent from his days as a Leaf. Not to mention, we seem to forget how, despite jumping down a level, his skills didn’t vanish.

Thanks to his comically long stick (seriously, I’ve seen it, and it’s ridiculous) Marincin managed to stifle opposing zone entries at a more successful rate than anyone else at the AHL level, earning him a central role on hockey’s most efficient penalty kill.

Marincin was never lacking in defensive proficiency, either. His condor-like wingspan allowed him to neutralize attacking forwards off the rush, while his keen positional awareness furthered his standing as a steady force in his own end.

There’s also this goal, which is hilarious.

Will Marincin make the Leafs out of camp? I honestly don’t know. Even if he doesn’t, that he managed to force his way back into the conversation on the merit of his play alone is impressive nonetheless.

10. Calle Rosen

If training camp reveals playoff-Calle Rosen to be the real Calle Rosen, the Leafs are in for a treat.

First, let me make something abundantly clear; Rosen DID NOT start the year off well.

The 24-year-old struggled mightily in his first spin on North American ice, his game noticeably lacking in the areas of puck strength, positional awareness, and on-ice vision.

It’s the latter of the three that became the most glaring. You’ll soon see why.

Rosen, a defenceman, fired off an average 2.5 SOG per game last season, more than any of his Marlie teammates by a fair margin. His 157 total shots were good enough to land him one shoto back of Chris Mueller for the team lead, despite Rosen playing in 11 fewer games than the top-six centre.

Needless to say, the guy was a machine.

One could logically pencil in anyone who generated those kinds of shot numbers as a lock to finish with a few goals to show for their efforts, right? Wrong. Rosen capped the year with a stat line of just 4 goals and a shooting percentage barely creeping above 2%.

How did this happen? Namely, Rosen wasn’t exactly methodical in his shot selection, the bulk coming from low percentage areas like atop the point or along the half wall.

In fact, Rosen’s penchant for long-range attempts quickly morphed into his defensive downfall.

Opposing wingers came to realize that they simply needed to rush Rosen at the blueline to force him into shooting directly at their shin pads, springing attackers for an odd-man rush, at best, and a breakaway, at worst.

Offensive zone turnovers became a popular space in Marlies bingo all too soon.

In a surprising development, Rosen’s turnaround came via the departure of Travis Dermott, his absence opening the door for a vital role to be there for the taking. As the Marlies now lacked their top-option, Sheldon Keefe issued a public prompting for one his group to step up.

Rosen did.

From mid-January onwards, Rosen shouldered the bulk of Dermott’s responsibilities, logging more minutes than ever while continuing to morph himself into a reliable top-four option.

Suddenly, a corner was turned. Rosen’s hold on the puck became stronger, his gap control tightened, and, most importantly, his vision markedly cleared. No longer did Rosen blindly fire off shots from hockey’s equivalent of three-point range. Rather, as his patience improved, so did the ability to open shooting lanes for higher quality chances.

The numbers speak for themselves. Following a dismal stretch of one goal through his first 52 games of the season, Rosen then scored 3 in his final 10, laying the groundwork for a remarkable postseason performance.

And remarkable it was.

Rosen had always possessed a fluid skating stride, arguably his top asset, but only truly began using it to its full extent during the playoffs. Opponents were left with no answer to his type of movement on the back end, which ended in goals like this.

Yeah, wow.

An afterthought come New Year’s, Rosen is now positioned to legitimately challenge for an NHL job. And if he looks in September anything like he did in May, he could very well earn one.

11. Pierre Engvall

Landing Pierre Engvall higher on this list than those of his age-bracket is the ability he demonstrated to assume whichever role was asked of him.

Engvall joined the Marlies last season via a mid-March PTO. proceeding to do nothing but score and finishing the regular season with an impressive 8 points in 9 games. His was certainly fine production, albeit dampened somewhat from the fact that the majority of it came on the power play.

This lead to Engvall being painted as a relatively one-dimensional player, at least initially, the type capable only of generating offence on the man advantage and not much else.

The playoffs soon changed all that, as an increase in the Marlies’ forward depth forced Engvall to play a role of which was otherwise completely foreign to him.

Alongside Colin Greening and Frederik Gauthier, the trio made up their team’s shutdown line, tasked with neutralizing opposing attacks during the most meaningful stretch of the season. Engvall accomplished just that, developing a two-way game practically on the spot and entrenching his place as an important piece within Keefe’s arsenal as well.

Despite minimal power play time, Engvall still managed to finish with 8 points in 20 postseason games, proving capable of executing defensively without the need to sacrifice offence.

And that’s not the only improvement the kid made.

Perhaps the most notable knock on Engvall’s game, prior to his breakout, was the reluctance to use his hulking 6’4 frame to its full advantage. Engvall had largely been a perimeter player for most of his life, doing his offensive zone damage while stationed along the hall wall or atop the circles.

Facing postseason competition forced him to recalibrate, with Engvall beginning to throw his body around with less abandon than ever before.

If he taps into that physical strength, look out.

The roster’s summer departures have, in all certainty, left Engvall due for a heavier role on the PP in 2018-19. Although, that may come with the added nugget of a penalty killing job as well. Were Engvall to consistently thrive in his newfound shorthanded minutes, his path to the NHL would clear significantly, potentially even following in the footsteps of fellow 7^th rounder and countryman, Andreas Johnsson.

I exited the Calder Cup with a far better opinion of Engvall than I entered it with.

The clock may be ticking – he turns 23 in May – but if Engvall carries his playoff momentum into the coming season, the future looks bright.

Thanks for reading! Part 4 drops later this week.

Stats courtesy of theahl.com