Recently there has been a bunch of interviews with past and present Toronto Marlies from their Calder Cup championship in 2018. Partially for the replays their playoff run, partially to fill their empty content due to the complete lack of new sports going on in our part of the world.

That got me looking at their playoff roster. Now, I know that to win a championship you need a good roster. A great roster, even. But man I was surprised how many names I saw that wound up on the Leafs.

13 of the players who at least played one playoff game in 2018 wound up later playing on the Leafs in some capacity. Four others had played for the Leafs at some point before that. Others moved on to play in the NHL for different teams. Eight of the players were AHL rookies that season.

It was a special roster, but even still there were names I forgot. So I wanted everyone to have some fun, and I made a Sporacle Quiz to see if you can name every player who played in at least one playoff game for the Toronto Marlies on their 2018 Calder Cup run:

If the embedded quiz above doesn’t work for you, you can try this link: https://www.sporcle.com/games/brigstew/toronto-marlies-calder-cup-roster

If anyone beats Hardev or Species’ high scores they get to shame them mercilessly until the next Calder Cup comes back to Toronto.

2020 NHL Draft: Looking for hidden gems in the QMJHL | by brigstew

The Leafs Nation has been doing a series ranking Leafs prospects outside the organization. They’re at #9, which is Mikhail Abramov!

Maple Leafs Mailbag: Is Andreas Johnsson most likely to be traded? | by Luke Fox at Sportsnet

TSN did a bunch of interviews with people on the Marlies, let’s catch up on them all:

Marlies coach Moore on ‘strange’ first season, learning from Keefe, coaching style | by Mark Masters at TSN (VIDEO)

Tough lessons give Adam Brooks a new appreciation for NHL hockey | by Kristen Shilton at TSN

Woll sharpens mental game in quest to be Leafs’ goalie of the future | by Mark Masters at TSN

The Columbus Blue Jackets signed European free agent Mikhail Grigorenko to a one year contract. Except no they didn’t:

Have a happy Tuesday everyone!

From The Branches