Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
“How about them Marlies?”
That was forward Michael Pezzetta’s question Monday at the team’s Calder Cup celebration, held at Toronto’s Real Sports Bar & Grill.
The Marlies answered a lot of questions this spring. They raised even more with their outstanding play, showing that they were much more than a fourth-place regular-season team. But those questions will wait until training camp this September when these players – newly crowned champions that they are – can show what they have taken from this experience.
Having just completed a postseason journey that stretched nearly two months, 24 games, five rounds and more than a few close calls, the Marlies have finally been able to exhale after lifting the Calder Cup last Friday night. They reached the end of that path on the Coca-Cola Coliseum ice, finishing off the stubborn Chicago Wolves with a 4-3 victory in Game 5 of the Calder Cup Finals.
Monday offered them a chance to revel with their fans at Real Sports, a sprawling sports bar next to Scotiabank Arena.
After being cheered on throughout their run, captain Logan Shaw returned the favor to the fans in attendance.
“We want to give you guys a round of applause,” Shaw said.
The work, lessons and confidence that the Marlies can take from this championship pursuit may enable them to eventually skate as full-time NHLers. Year after year, the Maple Leafs have always invested heavily in making the Marlies an elite operation on and off the ice. The Marlies’ playoff work has a chance to make that investment pay off even more.
Start with rookie forward Easton Cowan, who joined the Marlies after spending the season with the Leafs. He ended up tied for third in Calder Cup Playoff scoring with 18 points (eight goals, 10 assists) in 22 games. Or defenseman Ben Danford, the 20-year-old from the Ontario Hockey League who jumped aboard in time for the final three rounds and quickly looked the part of a pro. Feisty rookie forward Landon Sim brought an ability to disrupt opponents. Another rookie up front, Luke Haymes, handled the jump to playoff hockey well.
Then there is goaltender Artur Akhtyamov, who took control of the team’s number-one job early in the postseason and went on to win the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the most valuable player of the Calder Cup Playoffs. Akhtyamov, 24, finished 15-7 alongside a 2.22 goals-against average, a .923 save percentage and two shutouts in 22 games – including 20 consecutive starts to finish the postseason. More than a few other hopefuls strengthened their chances to earn work next season with the Leafs, too.
But it wasn’t all wins and highs, particularly for a team that finished fourth in the North Division at 36-26-5-5. Their .569 regular-season points percentage was the lowest for a Calder Cup champion in 24 years. They came together in the postseason, however, going 16-8. But even for a champion, the postseason brings plenty of disappointments, setbacks, and obstacles that a team must barge through.
“It was magical,” Shaw said.
These Marlies won seven of nine one-goal playoff games. Four times they survived an elimination game. Shaw and Cowan keyed a third-period comeback in the deciding Game 5 at Cleveland in the North Division Finals. They squeezed past the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the Eastern Conference Finals; Pezzetta, who had five goals in 39 regular-season games, came through with back-to-back game-winners and Cowan atoned for a turnover that cost his team Game 4 and scored in both Games 5 and 6.
And then the Wolves tested, stressed and demanded even more from the Marlies. Toronto won Game 1 by a goal plus an empty-netter. Chicago tied Game 2 with 16.7 seconds left in regulation before Shaw chipped in the overtime winner. Game 3 was a hard-fought 1-0 battle that featured 120 minutes in penalties handed out after the final buzzer. And with the Calder Cup waiting to be awarded in Game 4, the Marlies couldn’t hold a two-goal third-period lead and fell in OT.
The next night, though, they finished the task, fended off the Wolves’ last furious push, and won the franchise’s second championship in nine years.
The Marlies did not take the fast lane to the Calder Cup. This pursuit was a grind. Through those many fights, they grew as well.
“Learning how to win” is a common theme in player development. Well, the Marlies learned how to win.
“I think you know a big part of developing these young players and the prospects that [the Leafs] have is teaching them how to win,” Shaw stated, “and we did that.”
Shaw and Pezzetta have contracts that run through the 2026-27 season. Some of these players, like Cowan, will be with the Leafs in the fall. Others will stay with the Marlies to take bigger, different roles. And for some, a new NHL organization or opportunities overseas could be their break.
But no matter where on the hockey map their ambitions may take them next, they will always have this championship to bond them. They’ll have this time’s lessons to bring with them as well.
“It’s something that I know none of us will ever forget,” Pezzetta said. “We’re champions for life.”
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.