3 Marlies who will make Toronto Maple Leafs lineup
The Toronto Maple Leafs will need help from the Toronto Marlies this year for some depth additions. As always, the Toronto Maple Leafs will look to the Toronto Marlies for reinforcements, as the team gets ready for another season.
For the past half-decade, ever since Kyle Dubas joined the team, the Marlies have served as a huge developmental piece to the Leafs. Obviously, prior to his arrival, there were players who played in the AHL who transitioned to the NHL, but it was never taken as serious as it is today.
Securing draft picks and having a large prospect pool is important, but the biggest piece is development. You can have all of the best draft picks in the world, but without a good system and strong developmental staff, those players may never reach their highest potential.
On the current roster, players such as Pierre Engvall, Justin Holl, Timothy Lijegren, Rasmus Sandin and William Nylander have been a beneficiary of the AHL and their time with the Marlies were very valuable to their NHL success.
The Marlies team from 2015-2018 led by Sheldon Keefe was a juggernaut, which propelled many AHLers into full-time NHLers all across the league. Although the team isn’t as strong as it once was, there are still a number of great up-and-coming prospects who are getting ready to make the leap.
Here are three Toronto Marlies who should make the Toronto Maple Leafs roster this season.
No. 1: Joey Anderson
The Leafs traded Andreas Johnsson because of the salary cap, but in doing so, they may have found a future NHLer for a quarter of the price in Joey Anderson. Anderson is 24-years-old but only has 58 career NHL games under his belt. Since being drafted in 2016, he hasn’t been given much of a chance, but he now seems ready to make that leap full-time.
Anderson is a right-winger, which doesn’t help his chances with the Leafs, as they’re strong at that position, but he still could find himself on the third or fourth line if he performs well at training camp. Although he wasn’t known for his offensive outburst throughout his career, Anderson scored 26 goals in 56 games last year, showing everyone that he’s improved that facet of his game.
His best attribute is that he’s an agitator and someone who gets under the skin of his opponents, so that feistiness could be helpful on a Leafs’ roster that doesn’t have a ton of it. Instead of Kyle Clifford or Wayne Simmonds, Anderson could be a welcomed sight in the team’s bottom-six, who could play a shutdown role but also score.