Toronto Maple Leafs Prospect Report: Toronto Marlies Season Recap
The Toronto Maple Leafs farm team was hoping to have another magical season but that changed quickly.
Over the last five seasons, the Toronto Maple Leafs have stressed the importance of development, and that’s been done through the Toronto Marlies.
The Marlies are one typically one of the better teams in the American Hockey League (AHL) and rarely miss the playoffs. Heading into this year, the team had made the playoffs in eight straight seasons.
For a typical Leafs fan, you may not realize how important it is for their farm system to be competitive every year. It’s one thing to pump out a few great prospects every year, but having them play competitive games is incredibly important.
For example, there’s a reason why there are so many Marlies graduates from the 2017-18 Calder Cup winning team on the Toronto Maple Leafs current roster. A player’s development can get accelerated from long playoff grinds, and they can learn so much about themselves in big games.
Current Leafs such as Justin Holl and Andreas Johnsson will be forever grateful for their time with the Marlies, and there’s no doubt that more players like them will continue to develop with the Leafs.
For this current Marlies season, there was talk from within that this roster was actually more talented than that Calder Cup winning team. The team had lost a handful of veterans, but they added the following to make up for that loss: Kenny Agostino, Pontus Aberg, Garrett Wilson and Matt Read.
The biggest question mark for the Marlies heading into the season was goaltending, as it was unsure whether Kasmir Kaskisuo could carry the load.
Let’s go through the season month-by-month:
Toronto Marlies Season Recap
October, 2019 (Record: 6-0-2)
The Marlies couldn’t have got off to a better start than this. In their first eight games, the team had yet to lose in regulation.
The question mark in net was answered early as defense wasn’t an issue. The team had two shut-outs in their first five games and it looked like they were on their way to another magical season.
There was essentially nothing bad to say about the team at this point.
Fun Fact of the Month: Egor Korshkov, Pierre Engvall and Pontus Aberg all led the team with seven points, while Korshkov has five goals in his first eight games.
November, 2019 (Record: 8-3-1)
The team had a tough road-trip to start the month, but they rallied quickly with a seven-game win streak in the middle of November.
The Marlies loved their home-cooking at the start of the season, as it took until November 30th for the Marlies to lose a regular season game at home. In 19 games to start the season, the Marlies were now 14-3-3, and Aberg continued to lead the team in points with 22 on the season.
Fun Fact of the Month: After the Maple Leafs fired Mike Babcock, Sheldon Keefe was named the head coach of the big club, so assistant coaches Rob Davison and A.J. MacLean took over the coaching duties for the Marlies.
December, 2019 (Record: 5-7)
The Marlies found a new head coach in Greg Moore, who was hired in early December to run the Marlies bench. Before coaching in Toronto, Moore was coaching for the Chicago Steel in the USHL.
After starting out so hot, the Marlies regressed in the month of December, having their first under .500 month of the season. Although the team had a tough few weeks, they were still pushing for a playoff position, despite being a tough North Division.
After a break-out 2018-19 season, Jeremy Bracco came back to life for the Marlies and was now the team’s leader in assists with 22, while Aberg continued to lead the team in points with 27.
Fun Fact of the Month (Decade): Toronto is 417-228-41-33 since the 2010-11 season. The team also captured two MacGregor Kilpatrick trophies with the best regular season record in that time-frame.
January, 2020 (Record: 3-7-1)
New year, new Marlies?
After such a strong start, the Marlies season began to fall apart in the month of January. There were some positives for the Marlies this month, but for the most the team’s defense let them down allowing far too many goals.
In terms of positives, Nic Petan had a great month, as well as Bracco. Unfortunately though, those are two players that seem like they may never get an opportunity with the Leafs so although they’re performing great in the AHL, their best value for Toronto may be as a trade-chip.
Fun Fact of the Month: Jeremy Bracco and Timothy Liljegren were named to the 2020 AHL All-Star Classic.
February, 2020 (Record: 5-8)
For the third straight month, the Marlies had a losing record. The team has been in a free-fall since early December, and there’s potentially one reason for it: Sheldon Keefe.
Everywhere Keefe has coached, the team has had success. Even if a short-stint with the Leafs, the team has been much better than under Mike Babcock.
After the month of February, it’s clear that this roster just isn’t the same as previous years. The Marlies depth unfortunately is what it once was, and the team’s young defense has been an issue all season.
Not only has defense been an issue but it felt like their star-winger Jeremy Bracco was going to get traded. Bracco hasn’t played since February 1st, due to personal reasons.
The star winger has always butted heads with coaches and GM’s due to his personality, so with the Trade Deadline passing, it’ll be interesting to see where his career takes him.
Fun Fact of the Month: Joseph Woll has developed into the Marlies starter but hasn’t performed well in his first professional season. in 32 games played, Woll has .880 Save Percentage, 3.75 Goals Against Average and 11-16-3 record.
March, 2020 (Record: 2-3)
Who would have thought that after starting the season with a 14-3-3 record, that the Marlies would be 29-27-5 when the season stopped?
Following suit with the NHL, the AHL season stopped mid-March and there’s no return in sight.
Everything looked promising for a ninth straight playoff season, but if the season resumes it doesn’t look like that’ll be the case as Toronto sits in seventh place in their division. The only chance the team has at keeping that playoff record is if the season gets cancelled so they can try again next year.
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Fun Fact of the Month: Kenny Agostino leads the Marlies in goals (27) and points (49) in 53 games played this year. Agostino also has 30 points in 85 NHL career games played.