A few years ago, when the Toronto Marlies were taking on the St. John’s IceCaps in an American Hockey League exhibition game in Stephenville, Marlies’ head coach Sheldon Keefe could be found ensconced in the press box rather than on the bench. When asked why he was leaving the game management in the hands of his assistants, Keefe said the roster makeup at the time meant he was better served to act as a from-on-high talent evaluator rather than a coach.
“Because those aren’t the Toronto Marlies down there,” he said candidly, nodding towards the ice. “Those are the Orlando Solar Bears.”
Keefe was soon proven correct. By the time the AHL season began a couple of weeks later, only a couple of the players who had skated with the Marlies that night in Stephenville were still with the team. Most of the rest had been reassigned to the Solar Bears, the Marlies’ ECHL affiliate in those days.
Keefe’s Stephenville quote, with one amendment, could probably stand up as the Marlies begin their 2019 training camp today in Toronto. There are a whopping 39 players listed on the camp’s opening roster, but it’s likely the group will serve as the basis for the ECHL’s Newfoundland Growlers, who replaced the Solar Bears as Toronto’s ECHL partner last year, when the Growlers begin their own training camp in about a week’s time. That’s because there are still 52 players on the preseason roster of the parent Toronto Maple Leafs.
Leafs, Marlies camps bulging at the seams
Even discounting the injured, like forward Zach Hyman and defenceman Travis Dermott, as well as tryouts Matt Read and Michael Neuwirth, there are still two full teams worth of players with the big club, meaning few of those who take the ice with the Marlies today in Etobicoke, Ont., can be expected to find a spot with the AHL club when it opens its season Oct. 5. The rest will hope to have made an impression in camp in hopes of being at front of mind for Keefe when in-season call-ups are required.
Of the 39 in Etobicoke, 10 played with the ECHL champion Growlers last season, including forwards Zach O’Brien, Marcus Power, Brady Ferguson, Matt Bradley, Giorgio Estephan and Scott Pooley, and defenceman Alex Gudbranson, all on AHL contracts, and forward Todd Skirving and blueliners Garrett Johnston and Evan Neugold, a trio signed to ECHL deals.
As well, there are defenceman Tommy Panico and forward Reid Jackman, who were both signed directly as free agents by the Growlers in the off-season.
Newfoundland captain James Melindy, who is once again operating on an ECHL contract and is set to return as a Growlers mainstay, has apparently turned down an invitation to try out with the Marlies.
There are three would-be Marlies on NHL entry-level contracts — defenceman Aaron Luchuk along with goalies Kasimir Kaskisuo and Ian Scott.
Others hitting the ice in Etobicoke today and on AHL pacts are forwards Trey Bradley, Justin Brazeau, Tanner McMaster and Riley Woods, rearguards Ryan Johnston, Michael Kapla, and Sergei Sapego and goalie Maxim Zhukov. Most are professional rookies, although McMaster and Kapla both spent all of last year in the AHL, while Johnston was playing in Sweden. The latter is already familiar to St. John’s hockey fans having appeared in 87 games over two seasons with the IceCaps when they were the farm club of the Montreal Canadiens.
The remainder in the Marlies’ camp are players on professional tryouts (PTOs) and most aren’t eligible to end up with Newfoundland since they have already been signed by other ECHL teams. Even if they end up inking AHL contracts with Toronto, their ECHL rights would still be obtained by their original teams; they could only wind up with the Growlers through an ECHL-level trade.
There are exceptions among the PTOs, players whose ECHL rights have yet to be determined. That includes goaltender Brandon Halverson, who was in the New York Rangers’ system last season, and defenceman Zach Palmquist, who played with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the Philadelphia Flyers’ AHL team, in 2018-19.
With the Maple Leafs expected to trim their roster during or right after a home-and-home exhibition series against the Canadiens concludes Wednesday, the first Marlies cuts could come within days. The Growlers will begin their own training camp next Monday in Mississauga, Ont., leading up to a pair of ECHL exhibition games against the Brantford Beast Oct. 4 and 5 before the team travels to St. John’s to finish off preparations for the start of its 2019-20 regular-season on Oct. 11, when it hosts the Reading Royals at Mile One Centre.
brendan.mccarthy@thetelegram.com
Twitter: @telybrendan
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