Good morning to all of you fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Marlies, and beyond. We had some big-ish news drop on the weekend, so let’s get caught up:

Starting with the Maple Leafs and family news, the Toronto Marlies announced two new coaches joining the staff:

Troy Paquette is joining the Marlies as Video Coach, a former JrA player who has been working with the OHL Kingston Frontenacs as Video Coach since 2018, and was goaltending coach for Queen’s University since 2019.  He was also named Team Services Coordinator for the Frontenacs in July, but has left that role soon after getting promoted.

Hannu Toivonen is the new goaltending coach for the Marlies, replacing the short lived Dusty Imoo, and comes to us from Kalvola, Finland. He was an minor league goalie with a few short stops in the NHL, most notably was the goalie that Sidney Crosby scored his first NHL goal against. Last season he worked for the University of New England (NCAA Div 3) as a rookie goaltending coach, but has run his own goaltending schools for years:

Home | Hannu Toivonen Goaltending

A fresh face in the coaching world, who knew that could happen? It will be great to see if Toivonen can make an impact.

In player news, Denis Malgin has signed a four year deal with Zurich in Switzerland.

Denis Malgin returns to the Swiss league

The Maple Leafs family also lost a member over the weekend, Gerry ‘Tubby’ Aherne. Aherne backed-up Johnny Bower in 1961, but a shot that hit him between the eyes ended his career. The Toronto Star has his obituary:

Remembering Gerry ‘Tubby’ Aherne, former Leafs backup player and the co-founder of Canadian Oldtimers Hockey Association

The National Women’s Hockey League will be rebranding itself as the Premier Hockey Federation, and they have a logo too.

It’s something.

Source: the NWHL is getting a new name

Are they freeing up the NWHL name for an NHL run league? Do they want to be taken more seriously and, sadly, decided that removing “women” from the name will do so? Hopefully we find out more info on this sooner than later.

It’s still technically summer, so we’re still light on news.

Have a good day everyone, and if you’re returning to school today, good luck.

From The Branches