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Rielly Gains Valuable Experience With Marlies, Bite-Gate Revelation

May 21, 2013, 12:12 PM ET [400 Comments]
Mike Augello
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Maple Leafs reaped the rewards during the 2013 season of allowing their top prospects to gain confidence and experience with the AHL Toronto Marlies. Nazem Kadri, Matt Frattin and Jake Gardiner all played a significant part in the Marlies 2012 run to the Calder Cup Final and that exposure made them more effective, mature and well-rounded hockey players.

The organization is hoping that history will repeat itself with 2012 first rounder Morgan Rielly.

The fifth overall draft pick put all concerns about the serious knee injury that limited him to 23 games during the 2011-12 season to rest, as he scored 54 points in 60 games with the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors and played well for Canada during the World Juniors in Ufa, Russia last December.

After the Warriors were eliminated from any post-season competition in late March, the 19 year old blueliner was assigned to the Leafs AHL affiliate, scoring one goal and two assists in 14 regular season games. Rielly has played in seven of the Marlies nine playoff games so far and scored a key power play goal in the third period of their Game 5 victory last Saturday over Grand Rapids.

In an interview with Kyle Cicerella of Canadian Press last week, Rielly indicated that it has taken some time to acclimate himself to the pro game.

“I think when I came from junior there was a time I had to adjust to the pace, but over the last 20 games I’ve adjusted well and I’m pretty happy with how it’s gone, but there’s still room for improvement.” Rielly said

Marlies coach Dallas Eakins has been impressed with the skating, vision and offensive abilities of the youngster, but indicates that he will have to get stronger to contend with the stronger and faster players in the NHL.

“Some of these guys are big and have speed where in the past a guy may have him wide by a stride and he can close it.” Eakins said. “Now it’s ‘oh no’, he’s skilled, he’s fast and he’s 230 pounds.”

While comparisions to Gardiner are understandable because of their calm demeanor and similar skill set, it might be a stretch to expect Rielly to step in and make the Leafs blueline next October as Gardiner did two years ago.

Gardiner came to Toronto as a more finished product after playing 121 games over three seasons for the University of Wisconsin and joined the Marlies for 10 games at the end of the 2010-11 season and making the jump to the Leafs the following fall.

As a 19 year old, Rielly is not eligible to play in the AHL next season and would have to return to Moose Jaw for another season if he does not make the Leafs out of training camp in October. Barring a trade from the Warriors to a WHL team that is more likely to contend for a Memorial Cup, Rielly will have another year to get stronger, mature and potentially be part of Canada’s 2013 World Junior squad.

Rielly and the Marlies face Grand Rapids in Game 6 of the Calder Cup Western Conference Semi-Final at 7pm at Ricoh Coliseum.

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While far from being the equivalent of the 2005 revelation that FBI Associate Director Mark Felt was the infamous “Deep Throat” of Watergate fame, Leafs forward Mikhail Grabovski confessed to Yahoo Sports Dmitry Chesnokov that he did in fact bite Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty during a third period scrum of a 6-0 victory at the Bell Centre on February 9.

“It wasn’t that much. He was choking me and I bit him.”Grabovski said. “Don’t stick your hands where you shouldn’t. To be honest with you, he was choking me pretty hard, to the point where I really couldn’t breathe. And I couldn’t pull his hand away at all. I tried to hit him with my other hand, but I couldn’t because he was choking me. There was nothing left to do but bite him.”

This will make Grabovski, a former Habs prospect and favorite target of Montreal scorn, even more popular in La Belle Province.

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