The Toronto Maple Leafs AHL affiliate is having some unexpected success in the Calder Cup Playoffs, and continued that positive trend in the opening game of the North Division Final against the Cleveland Monsters on Thursday. The Toronto Marlies fell behind 2-0 to the Monsters and scored five unanswered goals in a 5-2 win.
Toronto did not get on the board until late in the second period, when Easton Cowan tallied on the power play, and Marshall Rifai tied the game with six seconds left, and then pulled away in the third with three goals from Alex Nylander, Ryan Tverberg, and Benoit-Olivier Groulx. Artur Akhtyamov made 32 saves for his fifth win of the postseason.
William Villeneuve registered an assist in the victory and leads all AHL defensemen in postseason scoring with nine points (1 goal, 8 assists). The 24-year-old played only three games at the end of the regular season for the Leafs, which was one of many examples of head coach Craig Berube mishandling some of the club’s younger prospects after Toronto was eliminated from playoff competition.
Berube spoon-feeding Cowan’s minutes early in the year, and giving young forwards like Jacob Quillan and Luke Haymes limited minutes late in the season, may have been a contributing factor to his dismissal earlier this week. A favorable showing by Villeneuve and some of these young players could give them a boost with the Leafs new management team, headed by GM John Chayka.
In rumor news, there is still a lot of chatter about the meeting between Chayka, Mats Sundin, and team captain Auston Matthews, but unlike many of the reports indicating doom and gloom and Matthews looking to get out of town, the more likely result of the meeting is a clarification of the direction the new management team has in store. Rebuild does not appear to be on the agenda for the Leafs, but until management meets with Matthews, that rampant speculation will continue.
The next few weeks will likely focus on the search for a new head coach, with names like Bruce Cassidy, Manny Malhotra, and David Carle being prominent, and the upcoming NHL Draft Combine in Buffalo, where the speculation about whether Toronto will take Gavin McKenna will be in full force, but also in the mix will be who the Leafs may be targeting in the trade market and free agency.
On TSN’s Overdrive on Thursday, Darren Dreger reported that the Leafs may be in the mix to acquire NY Rangers center Vincent Trocheck in the summer. Trocheck has three more years at $5.625 million and was a prominent name at the trade deadline for teams looking for a second-line center, but Dreger asserts that the Rangers are looking to “get off of the contract” of the 32-year-old US Olympian.
The Rangers are in the midst of a reset, and the timetable for that and Trocheck being in his prime may not fit. But the market for centers is so costly with the lack of available pivots in free agency this summer, that the price it takes to get him will be prohibitive. The veteran center reportedly wants to stay in the East, but there also has been indications that his name was floated on the trade market, like Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou, and Matthew Knies, to see if a team was willing to overpay for them.
