Toronto Maple Leafs: David Warsofsky Will Have a Big Impact Next Season

The Toronto Maple Leafs recently acquired a player who should help the Marlies, who struggled through a difficult season in 2019/20.

NHL teams have begun to finally see the value of a strong development system, with a close relationship with their AHL affiliates going a long way to building a winning mentality, with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Marlies evidencing this in recent years.

Even before winning the 2017/18 Calder Cup championship, the Marlies have helped supply the Toronto Maple Leafs with a number of regulars in recent seasons, including the likes of William Nylander, Andreas Johnsson and Zach Hyman.

Another such player that worked his way through the Marlies into the NHL is Kasperi Kapanen, who was most recently dealt to the Pittsburgh Penguins in a significant, multi-asset trade that truly sees the Leafs organisation benefit in more ways than one.

The Importance Of David Warsofsky

The 15th-overall pick in this year’s draft and center prospect Filip Hallander are the primary pieces that the Leafs received in the package for Kapanen, but one other piece included in the deal could have a significantly positive impact on the Toronto Marlies roster next season.

30-year-old veteran left-handed defenseman David Warsofsky is the latest addition to the Marlies’ defensive unit and should be expected to take quite a strong leadership role on when play eventually resumes for the second tier of North American hockey.

After being selected by the St. Louis Blues in the fourth round (95th overall) of the 2008 NHL Draft, the Marshfield, Massachusetts native has become one of the most experienced players in the minors, already having 454 regular-season games under his belt in the AHL, with 55 goals and 233 total points during stretches with the Providence Bruins, San Antonio Rampage, Colorado Eagles and, most recently, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. (Stats via Elite Prospects)

Combine that with 55 NHL appearances with the Pittsburgh Penguins, New Jersey Devils and Colorado Avalanche and the Marlies truly have a player that could be a significant contributor on the ice for them next season.

At the time of writing, the Marlies’ oldest player outside of Warsofsky is 25-year-old Teemu Kivihalme, with the majority of players currently locked up to minor-league deals sitting between the ages of 20 and 23, making the addition of Warsofsky more important than it initially appeared on the surface.

The Marlies struggled mightily when head coach Sheldon Keefe earned his promotion to the Toronto Maple Leafs, sitting second-bottom in the North Division and on a run of just 3-7-0 in their final ten games of the regular-season before the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic cut the season short.

The team is in a transitional phase, having been one of the most stacked teams talent-wise for a few years, to needing to find their way in a highly competitive division and league.

The addition of an experienced veteran, who was named the captain of the WBS Penguins last season, having worn the alternate ‘A’ for the Eagles the previous season, is something that the Marlies will truly benefit from.

Young players such as Filip Kral and Noel Hoefenmayer, both 20/21 years old,could benefit from having an older, experienced player to gleam knowledge from, learning how to be professionals and having a role model to look up to both on and off the ice.

The Marlies lost Jesper Lindgren as part of the package trade involving Kapanen, but it appears to be a situation where they have actually added by subtraction and received the higher-quality player in return – a player who incidentally was drafted in the same spot as Lindgren, just seven years earlier.