Toronto Maple Leafs: Grading the Young Marlies Part One

Following in the footsteps of many a young Marlie before him, Trevor Moore is the latest prospect to earn himself a promotion with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Let’s check in on how his fellow 23-and-under peers have performed through their first 11 games.

Jeremy Bracco

Grade: C-

Boy, this one is a bummer.

Following a terrific effort at September’s Rookie Tournament which he then managed to carry all through training camp and into the preseason, Jeremy Bracco was overwhelmingly pegged as a potential breakout candidate before embarking upon his sophomore AHL campaign.

He, uh, hasn’t been one. At least, not yet, as Bracco sits at just 5 points in 11 games.

To be fair, it’s still quite early. Even harkening back to last year, Bracco didn’t truly come into his own until around, give or take, Christmas, meaning there is still plenty of time for the 22-year-old to fulfil his early billing.

But the clock ticks nonetheless. And, in spite of the caveat of small sample size, it’s hard not to be disappointed by the early returns.

As I’ve written numerous times, Bracco’s best asset is, without a doubt, his playmaking. It’s what makes him special. The ability to locate open teammates in tight windows and hit them accurately in stride largely contributed to the hype train upon which Bracco rode into the year.

Unfortunately, his formerly acute vision has been seldom seen thus far.

There are occasional flashes of it. Albeit, these arrive few and far between. Too often does Bracco force passes into areas he otherwise previously wouldn’t, displaying a degree of uncharacteristic panic by either threading pucks into cluttered lanes or placing them on the back foot of a streaking teammate.

Then, there’s the size issue.

Look, as someone who clocks in at a generous 5’10”, I will always be in the little guy’s corner. Us vertically challenged folk need to stick together, you know.

That being said, the NHL’s recent crop of diminutive superstars have managed to thrive by finding the means to work around their limitations. Bracco, at least to this point, has not. His puck strength is nonexistent this year and opponents know it. They target Bracco, doing so with the knowledge that they’ll be able to create separation with considerable ease.

A nightly rag-dolling has led Bracco to exude more timid tendencies, evidenced in the clip below.

With a relatively open lane before him, Bracco senses a defender closing in on him and panics. Whereas, as a rookie, he would normally attempt to beat out the pinch and attack the zone, sophomore Bracco freezes instead, bobbling the puck and forfeiting possession altogether.

It’s a subtle sequence, but one that goes lengths to illustrate the challenges currently plaguing the former second-round pick.

Carl Grundstrom

Grade: B

Carl Grundstrom has hit the ground running this season. Exiting Friday’s contest with the Belleville Senators while scoring at a point-per-game clip, Grundstrom’s 9 points in 9 games land him top-5 in team scoring behind a three-way tie for second with Sam Gagner, Chris Mueller and, surprisingly, Calle Rosen.

Honestly, you could have fooled me.

For all his early box score success, Grundstrom’s may be the most understated hot start in recent memory. He’s otherwise been fine. But the version of Grundstrom who exploded in the 2018 Calder Cup playoffs while making up one-third of a dominant Marlies’ top line next to Andreas Johnsson and Miro Aaltonen has thus far been largely dormant.

So, what’s the deal? How can Grundstrom sit at a point-per-game and garner only a “B”?

Well, it all boils down to a matter of expectation.

Departures from Johnsson, Aaltonen and Ben Smith over the summer left the Marlies’ lineup lacking an offensive focal point, and the expectation to fill that void quickly shifted onto Grundstrom’s shoulders. Stepping into this featured role brought forth not only the need to produce. No, for Grundstrom to truly bridge the gap left by his bygone teammates, he was expected to dominate. And, so far, he hasn’t. Therefore, he gets a “B”.

Really, this should speak volumes to Grundstrom’s potential. Think about it for a moment. Few players can miss two games to injury, challenge for their team’s lead in scoring regardless and yet ultimately leave fans wanting more.

Grundstrom can. And if this is what underwhelming looks like for him, that’s good news.

For Grundstrom to step into his own, he simply cannot continue to be one-dimensional. His game, for all its crash-and-bang tendencies, exhibits a degree of dynamism.

Goals like the one above confirm the existence of Grundstrom’s arsenal of offensive weapons and provide a beautiful showcase of them in action. When breaking free from confinement to the net-front, JVR archetype, Grundstrom has shown just how effective he can be in all areas of the ice, particularly when using his lethal shot and deceptive speed to terrorize opponents off the rush.

There is, of course, some needed context here as well.

Despite already owning a Calder Cup ring, 2018-19 happens to be Grundstrom’s first full year on North American ice. Having logged a total of just 26 games on the smaller surface prior to this season, he’s still technically a rookie and is now thrust into being the straw which stirs the drink.

Is that fair? I’d argue it really not, strong postseason and all. For comparison’s sake, Johnsson – who is 3 years older than Grundstrom, didn’t truly come into his own as an AHL superstar until last season.

We may have to wait a bit for the Swede to reach his ceiling.

Even so, where he’s at now is perfectly fine.

Pierre Engvall

Grade: B-

Pierre Engvall‘s start bears many similarities to that of Carl Grundstrom‘s.

Fantastic postseason performances from either player in 2018 were enough to tease fans of their respectively mouth-watering potential and, ultimately, can be held responsible for breeding the sky-high expectations both are subjected to today.

Pencilling Engvall to take a step forward this year is reasonable. He turned 22 in May, looked fantastic throughout the Calder Cup playoffs and the most recent preseason, and should largely benefit from increased usage. A decidedly unreasonable assumption is to bill him as this year’s Johnsson, tempting as it may be.

It’s important to remember that few players, league-wide, can ever match Johnsson’s prior dominance. His 2018 campaign was special, and choosing to weigh the progress of fellow prospects by that standard will lead only to disappointment.

So, like Grundstrom, Engvall has been fine.

Following the Marlies’ 7-6 loss to Belleville on Friday, Engvall is nevertheless flirting with a point-per-game pace (8 points in 9 games), deploys a wicked wrister that continues to be an invaluable asset to his team’s power play, and is otherwise managing to produce despite lugging around a pair of slow, ageing veterans in Colin Greening and Josh Jooris as linemates.

Engvall’s true measure of success this season is not going to be face value stats, but rather determining whether or not he’s managed to carry the lessons he learned from the Calder Cup run into the new year. His ceiling ultimately depends on it.

Via the March PTO window last season, Engvall joined the Marlies as a largely perimeter-centric player – more comfortable at patrolling the top of the circles than engaging physically. He was good at it, too. His 9 points in 8 games were the most among all Marlies’ stretch run tryout additions and the bulk of them came by way of the man advantage.

Take this goal, for example, the first of his AHL career.

Engvall (top of the screen) touches the puck only once during the entire sequence; when he puts it in the back of the net.

Sneaking into the zone, he hovers around the top of the circle, watching the play before recognizing the emergence of a scoring chance. Engvall does little to actually generate the goal, as most of the credit is attributed to the hard work of Trevor Moore, Aaltonen and Bracco for keeping the puck in the offensive zone at all.

Such was the difference between Johnsson and Engvall. The former operated as the driver of his line’s success while the latter, in his rawest form, merely benefited from it.

Fast forward to the postseason and it’s a completely different story.

Alongside Frederik Gauthier and Colin Greening, a role on the Marlies’ shutdown line forced Engvall to develop a two-way game more or less on the fly – a challenge he undertook to fantastic results. Suddenly, there Engvall was; opting to eschew his perimeter hugging tendencies of the past in lieu of a more physical and demanding approach.

Postseason Engvall (pictured above) is an aggressive forechecker. He tracks the puck in the offensive zone and successfully strips an opponent along the boards to maintain possession, then weaves his way into open space before opening the scoring.

The two goals mirror each other in certain ways.

Both come in close proximity to the net, are generated by the Marlies’ ability to deny their opponent a zone exit, and feature Engvall finding uncovered open space from which to strike. Only, the former has almost nothing to do with Engvall’s play while the latter simply does not happen without his efforts.

For Engvall to elevate his ceiling, for him to officially take that next step, latter Engvall must be the only Engvall. So far, he’s only been seen in spurts.

Thanks for reading! Part Two drops next week.

All stats courtesy of hockeydb.com

All gifs and footage courtesy of AHLtv.