The Marlies have ten games left to hold the line

The Marlies lost to the Laval Rocket 4-1 last night, it allowed the Rocket to clinch a playoff spot, the first team in the North Division of the AHL to do so, while other divisions have had that feat done for some time.

The North Division standings have a clear separation of a top, middle, and bottom.

As a reminder, the AHL playoffs are decided by division only, there are no wild card spots. Same as last year, the top five teams in the North Division will make the playoffs, but the top three skip the "first round" which is really a maximum three game play-in style tournament like that pioneered by the NBA.

Holding at third place means the Marlies won't have to deal with that and will jump the queue straight to the real first round. If you don't recall, the Marlies dropped in the standings late last season and did have to go through it where they were bounced out by the Belleville Senators 2 games to 1.

A playoff berth isn't yet clinched, but seems inevitable, however the play-in round is basically a coin toss that you should avoid at all costs, so the team has a lot of motivation to win as many of these final ten games as possible, but it won't be easy.

The Cleveland Monsters lost last night too, but in a shootout, so they still picked up a standings point in the game and could easily bump the Marlies down into that territory. The Marlies play again tonight against the Belleville Senators and then on Sunday against the Bridgeport Islanders and winning both is now crucial.

Aside from the Islanders game, all the rest of the schedule is against opponents in the division where every standings point makes a difference. The Marlies can still jump the Rochester Americans to second place and get home ice advantage, something that is highly preferred. Jacob Quillan said "having home ice, having the fans here and an extra game if it comes down to it is crucial at home."

Dennis Hildeby thinks the team's success has come from trust, saying "you make a mistake and there's no panic. We work for each other and help each other," adding "we're a calm group of guys in the locker room too."

The Roster

We all know the team took a blow with both Fraser Minten and Nikita Grebenkin traded away (so sorry, Brian), but in case you missed it, reinforcements have arrived from NCAA signings. Both have contracts with the Leafs that begin for the 2025-26 season, but in the interim they have been signed to contracts with the Marlies for the remainder of this season. Luke Haymes and John Prokop have joined the team. They have not played yet, but with a three-in-three weekend they will likely get in a game shortly. UPDATE: They are both playing Saturday night.

Brian has the scoop on these players.

Or you can watch them talk on this video.

State of the League

I attended the AHL All-Star Classic in the Coachella Valley in February where three Marlies attended plus Coach John Grunden. Oh, and someone else was there from the team too.

Bumped into someone familiar here in Coachella Valley at the #AHLAllStar event tonight. pic.twitter.com/GnlgWfQh75
— Pension Plan Puppets (@PPPLeafs) February 3, 2025

For those who follow the AHL there were some notes I took worth sharing.

First, I loved the Hispanic representation in the crowd at the game. Seeing moments like little kids running up to the Coachella Valley Firebirds' mascot Fuego, some even wearing replica costumes, and then talking to him in Spanish were precious. Fuego, like all mascots, does not speak back and only makes gestures, but clearly whomever was inside the costume understood what the kids were saying and gave out lots of big hugs. I asked AHL President & CEO Scott Howson about this and he said it was a natural for the league and an untapped cultural market which they could easily see other AHL team markets reaching out to.

Howson commented on the new FloSports streaming package noting they are not simply a service provider, but they are also producing the broadcasts, so I asked about the cheaper single-team packages that used to be available and he said "that was a big discussion point for us, and that's just not possible right now. When we agreed to go with FloSports as a [production] partner rather than a service provider, that was the deal." He said there was a possibility of change in the future but given how the streaming market is constantly in flux, for now it remains all or nothing.

The AHL has a contractual partnership with Canadian company CCM, which manufactures their hockey equipment in Canada. I asked Howson about what could happen with tariffs and he said that at present they were in a holding pattern, noting the teams have "already purchased almost all equipment needed for the season, so we can wait to make a decision."

Overall, Howson said he thinks "the quality of play is the highest we've ever seen," adding "the 32-32 is back in effect that works very well for us, now that Carolina and Chicago are back together again." For those who don't follow closely, the AHL Chicago Wolves and the NHL Carolina Hurricanes had a very public and acrimonious divorce in 2023. You can read about that here, but the relationship now appears to be all patched up.

Howson added ticket revenue is way up, and so is advertising revenue. Attendance is projected to be among the highest, if not the highest ever for the league this season.

Getting There

Of the ten Marlies games left, only five are home games, and one of those is a school day game with a 10:45 a.m. start which you probably won't be going to unless you are under the age of 17. But for the other games, please remember that construction in the area continues and TTC service is spotty at best.