The Toronto Maple Leafs managed to salvage a win out of their three-game Central Division road trip, besting the weary St. Louis Blues 4-1 at Scottrade Center on Saturday, but present day events occurring with the big club appear to be less the focus of the organization than the progress of their top prospects in the CHL and American Hockey League.
Toronto is 9-13-5 and their positioning in the bottom five of the NHL standings will likely not improve this season. The Leafs are one of three teams in the league with less than 10 wins and are 26th in scoring with 61 goals.
While the development of young building blocks such as Morgan Rielly are integral to the club’s future success, the short term decline that will accompany GM Lou Lamoriello starting to ship out players with expiring contracts or those who do not fit into head coach Mike Babcock’s future plans are of little concern.
The main factor with the Leafs this season is laying the groundwork and establishing a structure under Babcock that will be more effective when players with more talent begin to be infused into the NHL roster next season.
The progress of the Toronto Marlies has to be a reason for optimism, as the Leafs AHL affiliate rebounded from a pair of losses to St. Johns last weekend with a road win in Rochester and back-to-back home victories over the Manitoba Moose.
Goaltender Jonathan Bernier stopped 43 shots for the Marlies in consecutive shutouts over Rochester and Manitoba on the weekend.
Image courtesy of Christian Bonin at TSGPhoto
The Marlies capped the weekend with a 9-0 thrashing of the Moose at Air Canada Center, as nine different players registered goals and Jonathan Bernier stopped 21 shots for his second straight shutout. Josh Leivo led Toronto with four points (1 goal, 3 assists) and William Nylander increased his AHL scoring lead to three points over Bridgeport’s Joe Whitney with a goal and two assists.
The club leads the AHL with an 18-5-1 record and has the trio of Nylander, Leivo and TJ Brennan in the top 10 in scoring, but they will probably be without their 19-year-old leading scorer and forward Kasperi Kapanen for up to three weeks, as both are expected to depart for the upcoming 2016 IIHF World Junior Tournament in Helsinki after next weekend’s trio of games.
Reports this week from two Swedish newspapers indicated the Swedish hockey federation had requested that Nylander be released for the WJC and that the Maple Leafs would comply.
“I have met with the NHL again in New York and got the news that the Toronto Maple Leafs will release Nylander,… said Hall of Famer Peter Forsberg, VP of the Swedish hockey federation.
Lamoriello indicated in an interview with TSN’s Mark Masters on Thursday that management had not made a final decision yet but saw the benefits of the pair heading to Europe.
“I think any time that I’ve had players in major junior in the Soo that left for that tournament always came back feeling like more complete and better players.… Marlies coach Sheldon Keefe said on Sunday. “We got two guys there that are very motivated to perform well no matter what the stage is and that’s a big stage for them.…
Two other players potentially bound for Helsinki are 2015 first rounder Mitch Marner and second rounder Travis Dermott. Marner dazzled for London on the weekend, collecting 11 points (7 goals, 4 assists) including a pair of hat tricks in victories over Windsor, Ottawa and Guelph and moving into a tie for the OHL scoring lead with linemate Christian Dvorak.
Every goal from Mitch Marner's #back2back hat trick weekend. @Marner93 @GoLondonKnights #leafs #NHL pic.twitter.com/bSd0QQdvv7
— NormanJamesCTV (@NormanJamesCTV) December 7, 2015Dermott notched two assists in a 5-0 Erie Otters victory over Owen Sound and is tied for the OHL scoring lead among defenseman with fellow invitee Roland McKeown of the Kingston Frontenacs. Dermott’s chances of making Team Canada improved on the weekend due to a serious shoulder injury suffered by Providence College’s Jake Walman.
According to TSN’s Bob McKenzie, Hockey Canada is unlikely to select another defenseman to replace Walman and that the 10 blueliners invited to next week’s camp will be competing for seven roster spots.
2015 fifth rounder Dmytro Timashov scored two goals and three assists in a 7-6 overtime loss to Shawinigan on Friday and could be paired with Nylander on Team Sweden for the upcoming tournament. The 19-year-old is in the top 10 of QMJHL scoring and has nearly matched his goal total(19) from 2014-15 in 28 games this season.
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