Toronto Maple Leafs Prospects Impress Despite Marlies Early Playoff Exit

The Toronto  Maple Leafs season came to an end against Florida, and then last week, the Toront Marlies season came to a crashing end on Wednesday night after they fell to the Rochester Americans in three straight games.

At the conclusion of the 2022-23 American Hockey League regular season, the Toronto Maple Leafs Farm Club found themselves at top of the North Division after finishing nine points ahead of the second place Syracuse Crunch as well as the Americans.

With the Leafs injury to Matt Murray, their farm team went without star goalie Joseph Woll down the stretch and for their first six games of the playoffs.

After the Toronto Maple Leafs were eliminated last weekend by the Florida Panthers, Woll was re-assigned to the Marlies in time to join the team when they were down two games in their best of five series.  Despite the franchises top goalie prospect all but securing a spot on the big club next season he surrendered seven goals on 35 shots in the 8-4 loss that ended the Marlies playoff drive.

Toronto Maple Leafs Prospects Impress Despite Marlies Early Playoff Exit

The biggest bright spot for management to see through the Marlies playoffs was the continued progression of 23-year old Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Pontus Holmberg.

The 2018 sixth round selection collected a hattrick during their final game and finished with six goals and eight points during the seven-game playoff run.

Holmberg played in 37 games in a Maple Leafs uniform his past season, primarily as a fourth line center, but still collected 13 points.  He often got high praise from head coach Sheldon Keefe on his hockey IQ, where the Maple Leafs bench boss commonly stated that he could not find make mistakes in Holmberg’s game.

Recently on the Leafs Report Podcast with Jonas Siegel and James Mirtle, the Athletic hosts stated they believe current free agent center David Kampf was likely to earn a new contract in the area of $3 Million per season.  That will likely price Kampf off the Toronto Maple Leafs roster, which opens the door that already seemed slightly ajar for the Swedish Holmberg.

Another Toronto Maple Leafs prospect that impressed was that of 2020 third round selection Topi Niemela.

The Finnish defenseman garnered a lot of attention during the 2021 World Junior Championships where he led all defensemen in goals, assists and points which led to him earning the Top Defenseman of the tournament award.

Niemela came over to the Marlies after his Finnish Hockey League season ended and collected two points in six games, but appeared to become more comfortable with the team in the playoffs.  The 5’11” defenseman collected five points in the seven games and tied Jordie Benn with a +4 rating on the team lead.

While Niemela likely won’t crack the opening day roster next year, he may be positioning himself for an audition throughout the season, however Woll and Holmberg have appeared to put themselves in contention for making the club out of training camp this upcoming October.