The Toronto Maple Leafs dominate the news cycle around here, and it’s often easy to overlook the Marlies.
The Toronto Maple Leafs farm team has been having a solid season so far.
Leading the North Division with a 12-7-1 record, the Marlies are 9th overall and 5th in their conference.
This is a big improvement over last season where they finished 6th out of 7 teams in their division.
Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Marlies
The Toronto Maple Leafs have now made five drafts with Kyle Dubas at the helm, and the results of his skill-based drafting are just starting to come through.
Dubas first draft as the GM was 2018, and so far, five of the nine players he drafted that year have made the NHL (Rasmus Sandin, Sean Durzi, Fillip Kral, Mac Hollowell, and Pontus Holmberg).
That is an incredible beginning to an NHL career, and the Leafs are just scratching the surface of what their deep and talented (and underrated) farm system has to offer.
At the moment, the Marlies are being led by Logan Shaw, a 30 year old Panthers draft pick from 2011. Shaw is ninth in league scoring with 23 points in 20 games.
Adam Gaudette has 12 goals in 17 games and is 5th in goal scoring.
Joey Anderson has 10 goals.
Those are three players who represent excellent NHL depth for the Leafs. Shaw-Gaudette-Anderson would make a perfectly capable NHL 4th line. There is also Kyle Clifford.
If that was the limit of the Leafs options, then they might not be the NHL’s deepest team. But what they have in the minors borders on ridiculous.
Besides the three obviously NHL ready veterans, there is prospect Alex Steeves who has 19 points in 20 games. He is 100% an NHL player, and would likely be in the league if he played on a different team.
Nick Abruzzes and Mikhail Abramov are another two Marlies forwards who are NHL options, if necessary. Both players are having decent years and both will eventually be in the NHL.
On Defense, we’ve already seen the Marlies send the Leafs Victor Mete, Jamie Benn, Mac Hollowell and Phil Kral at various points, while Noel Hoefenmayer is scoring a point per game and might demand a look before long. He’s a 2017 Coyotes 4th rounder.
The Marlies are an interesting mix of NHL ready depth players and mid-round picks starting to scratch the surface of their potential. An AHL title is a distinct possibility this year. The Marlies are first in their division and have been looted constantly by the Leafs who are having a ton of injuries.
Eventually, the Leafs will be healthy and the Marlies team will be insane. That’s not really important, though. The important thing is the development of the likes of Steeves, Hollowell, Kral, Villenouve etc.
But the bottom line is this: the Toronto Maple Leafs have managed to assembled a lot of NHL players on their AHL team this year, and that can only help them in their pursuit of the Stanley Cup.