2016-17 Marlies Talk: New Season, Continued Expectations

[Redleaf]

I personally think all the newfound success, (I realize it's still early in the game) can be directly attributed to Mark Hunter and his ability to scout out these great up and coming players for the organization. More than I can recall with past administrations, , there just seems to be more hits than misses at the last few drafts he's run.

 

[herman]

I'm super excited about our prospects, but a couple of caveats:
a) This is early goings still and a very, very small sample size. They're trending in positive directions though.
b) As much credit as we can give to Hunter, there wasn't exactly a high hurdle to compare him to before
c) Scouting only takes you so far. I'd like to give credit to the development staff as well. No longer does the team just draft and hope players figure it out by playing, but there are concentrated efforts to help individuals develop their games (and off-ice lifestyles) to their fullest potential

 

[Redleaf]

I'm super excited about our prospects, but a couple of caveats:
a) This is early goings still and a very, very small sample size. They're trending in positive directions though.
b) As much credit as we can give to Hunter, there wasn't exactly a high hurdle to compare him to before
c) Scouting only takes you so far. I'd like to give credit to the development staff as well. No longer does the team just draft and hope players figure it out by playing, but there are concentrated efforts to help individuals develop their games (and off-ice lifestyles) to their fullest potential

I can agree with that Herman. And like I said, it is still early, but the early results have certainly been promising. It's been a long, long time since we've seen this organization run with this much professionalism, across the board. I'd be lying if I said its been easy to hide my enthusiasm with what Shanahan has done and is still doing since he became president. Add some much needed luck with the lottery draft win, and this team is finally beginning its ascent back up the ladder and into respectability again. The only question in my mind now is, how much longer will it take?

 

[Kin]

Seems pretty unlikely that Hunter played a huge role in scouting Leipsic, Kapanen or Johnsson.

 

[bustaheims]

No longer does the team just draft and hope players figure it out by playing, but there are concentrated efforts to help individuals develop their games (and off-ice lifestyles) to their fullest potential

In addition to that, in the past, they seemed to try to apply a "one size fits all" approach to their secondary prospects (ie. guys they didn't draft early in the 1st round). The new group seems to much more adept at creating more targeted development game plans to address the specific needs of each prospect.

 

[Zee]

I thought Leipsic would make the Leafs this season.  He didn't look out of place in limited games last year so I was surprised when he went back to the Marlies.  Hopefully we see him and Soshnikov soon.  Any injury update on Soshnikov?

 

[herman]

I thought Leipsic would make the Leafs this season.  He didn't look out of place in limited games last year so I was surprised when he went back to the Marlies.  Hopefully we see him and Soshnikov soon.  Any injury update on Soshnikov?

Sosh played one of the Comets games on Gauthier's line and got a PP goal, so I think he's okay now. There have been notes about Soshnikov overworking himself off ice leading to the injury, so letting him work on some stuff with the Marlies and build up his body is not the worst thing. I have him slotted over Martin and Hyman (skill-wise) and Leivo and would love to see him with Kadri again but we have plenty of time to be patient.

 

[Kin]

I thought Leipsic would make the Leafs this season.  He didn't look out of place in limited games last year so I was surprised when he went back to the Marlies.  Hopefully we see him and Soshnikov soon.  Any injury update on Soshnikov?

Sosh played one of the Comets games on Gauthier's line and got a PP goal, so I think he's okay now. There have been notes about Soshnikov overworking himself off ice leading to the injury, so letting him work on some stuff with the Marlies and build up his body is not the worst thing. I have him slotted over Martin and Hyman (skill-wise) and Leivo and would love to see him with Kadri again but we have plenty of time to be patient.

We also have to accept that the only guy in the top 9 we can say with any certainty won't be around long term is Michalek. There's just not a lot of ice time available as it stands.

 

[herman]

We also have to accept that the only guy in the top 9 we can say with any certainty won't be around long term is Michalek. There's just not a lot of ice time available as it stands.

The next season, we could be dropping Komarov, Bozak, JvR (maaaybe?) by the deadline as well. I don't think they're going to make any decisions on these guys until then, or a compelling offer lands on the table.

Leipsic's contract is up after this season, as well as his waiver eligibility. This is basically his make or break season. Soshnikov, Lindberg, Gauthier, and Kapanen have a bit more runway in line with the aforementioned NHL top-9 departures.

What gives me a bit more comfort with that than usual is this management team showed they were willing to dump decent short term vets for youth with promise. Lamoriello's comments indicated that this might have been a special case scenario this season, however as we're still on the tail end of the teardown overlapping with the building phase.

 

[WhatIfGodWasALeaf]

I thought Leipsic would make the Leafs this season.  He didn't look out of place in limited games last year so I was surprised when he went back to the Marlies.  Hopefully we see him and Soshnikov soon.  Any injury update on Soshnikov?

Sosh played one of the Comets games on Gauthier's line and got a PP goal, so I think he's okay now. There have been notes about Soshnikov overworking himself off ice leading to the injury, so letting him work on some stuff with the Marlies and build up his body is not the worst thing. I have him slotted over Martin and Hyman (skill-wise) and Leivo and would love to see him with Kadri again but we have plenty of time to be patient.

We also have to accept that the only guy in the top 9 we can say with any certainty won't be around long term is Michalek. There's just not a lot of ice time available as it stands.

Yup, rather than reach a tipping point next year with waivers, I wonder if they try and turn four quarters into a dollar at some point.

I think we are going to see Andreas Johnsson very soon, I think he's better than the AHL already.

 

[Kin]

The next season, we could be dropping Komarov, Bozak, JvR (maaaybe?) by the deadline as well. I don't think they're going to make any decisions on these guys until then, or a compelling offer lands on the table.

Sure, that's why I said "with any certainty". Any manner of things could happen.

Leipsic's contract is up after this season, as well as his waiver eligibility. This is basically his make or break season. Soshnikov, Lindberg, Gauthier, and Kapanen have a bit more runway in line with the aforementioned NHL top-9 departures.

I get what you're saying here but it strikes me as such an odd way to think of it. Leipsic had a very good year last year and would have made the Leafs if they were in any other situation other than the one where they were already giving a ton of roster spots over to rookies. So the idea that they'd walk away from him if he has a less good year despite never really giving him a shot strikes me as a little strange, especially when you can say he maybe adds something to the mix someone like Kapanen doesn't.

 

[herman]

I get what you're saying here but it strikes me as such an odd way to think of it. Leipsic had a very good year last year and would have made the Leafs if they were in any other situation other than the one where they were already giving a ton of roster spots over to rookies. So the idea that they'd walk away from him if he has a less good year despite never really giving him a shot strikes me as a little strange, especially when you can say he maybe adds something to the mix someone like Kapanen doesn't.

You raise a good point; my words suggested it, but I wasn't really entertaining the idea of dropping Leipsic (he's awesome). I was thinking more along the lines of that nebulous zone of being a 'highly tradable asset', a la WIGWAL's Grabner trade notion.

Leipsic's niche in the pipeline (smallish, fast, skilled winger) is one that is almost too full at the older end to hang onto for much longer, so it's going to be a bit of a dogfight for him to separate his game from Kapanen, Timashov and try to overtake Hyman or Soshnikov. Dzierkals, Bracco, Korostelev, Brooks, Walker are coming up very quickly as well.

He also has to convincingly pull away from slightly different wingers in Johnsson (sniper) and Lindberg (big 200-footer) because the NHL roster is already locked into Nylander, Marner, Brown for top 9 speed/skill wingers.

tl;dr: Why did we sign Martin?

 

[Coco-puffs]

We also have to accept that the only guy in the top 9 we can say with any certainty won't be around long term is Michalek. There's just not a lot of ice time available as it stands.

Indeed.  Connor Brown pretty much already has that Top 9 spot spoken for IMO, just too many bodies in his way.  And I don't blame Babcock for running an all veteran line in Michalek - Kadri - Komarov to play against the opposition's top line, followed by Marner and Nylander on the right side- hence Brown being on the 4th line at the moment.   

 

[Kin]

You raise a good point; my words suggested it, but I wasn't really entertaining the idea of dropping Leipsic (he's awesome). I was thinking more along the lines of that nebulous zone of being a 'highly tradable asset', a la WIGWAL's Grabner trade notion.

Leipsic's niche in the pipeline (smallish, fast, skilled winger) is one that is almost too full at the older end to hang onto for much longer, so it's going to be a bit of a dogfight for him to separate his game from Kapanen, Timashov and try to overtake Hyman or Soshnikov. Dzierkals, Bracco, Korostelev, Brooks, Walker are coming up very quickly as well.

He also has to convincingly pull away from slightly different wingers in Johnsson (sniper) and Lindberg (big 200-footer) because the NHL roster is already locked into Nylander, Marner, Brown for top 9 speed/skill wingers.

tl;dr: Why did we sign Martin?

Admittedly, I don't watch a ton of the Marlies but I'd thought that Leipsic had a bit of gritty sandpapery grit that the other guys didn't. One that might make him more suited than others to having a 4th line spot.

Anyways, one way of looking at it might be that the Leafs' are running out of easy decisions to make. Dealing Michalek is one and looking to deal Lupul I suppose is another but beyond that they're going to have to start making tough choices about who's really got a long term future here and who doesn't. Kadri might have been the first decision they made that wasn't an obvious one and now they have to apply that to JVR, Bozak and that glut of B prospects.

 

[TBLeafer]

Mods please merge with the other Marlies thread...

 

[TBLeafer]

Kapanen with 5 points in two games to open the season.  Named AHL player of the week!

http://www.marlies.ca/news/news.asp?story_id=3929

 

[herman]

In addition to that, in the past, they seemed to try to apply a "one size fits all" approach to their secondary prospects (ie. guys they didn't draft early in the 1st round). The new group seems to much more adept at creating more targeted development game plans to address the specific needs of each prospect.

The addition of Darryl Belfry and expanded use of Barbara Underhill leads to things like this: https://streamable.com/qf44

That's Kapanen's first goal of the AHL season, which was a power drive from the neutral zone where he literally blows by everyone and cuts in front of the net for a forehander. He gains massive amounts of acceleration (especially relative to the defense which was trying to close the gap) by doing something that Belfry preaches to his players: crossing the feet.

Linear crossovers help players gain a huge amount of acceleration with less energy cost. Belfry?s optimal crossover-per-step ratio is one to three.

?It generates momentum,? Belfry said. ?It changes speed. If you have momentum and change of speed, you can do a lot in the NHL with those two things.?

You can see Kapanen winds up at his blue line. His curl time is accelerated with the crossovers (L over R). As he approaches the OZ and defenders, he switches to R over L briefly to pull his first checker up thinking he'll stop and curl for reinforcements, and then hits the gas going back to the L over R crossover to just divebomb the hapless goaltender.

Imagine Gauthier doing this.

Regardless of how fluid and clean their skating form is, players that don't have crossovers incorporated into their game yet will find themselves running out of steam by the time they break out of their own zone. Regular strides transfer a lot of the expended energy into sizeways acceleration, as forward travel = cosine of the stride angle (always < 1) * stride length.

 

[WhatIfGodWasALeaf]

In addition to that, in the past, they seemed to try to apply a "one size fits all" approach to their secondary prospects (ie. guys they didn't draft early in the 1st round). The new group seems to much more adept at creating more targeted development game plans to address the specific needs of each prospect.

The addition of Darryl Belfry and expanded use of Barbara Underhill leads to things like this: https://streamable.com/qf44

That's Kapanen's first goal of the AHL season, which was a power drive from the neutral zone where he literally blows by everyone and cuts in front of the net for a forehander. He gains massive amounts of acceleration (especially relative to the defense which was trying to close the gap) by doing something that Belfry preaches to his players: crossing the feet.

Linear crossovers help players gain a huge amount of acceleration with less energy cost. Belfry?s optimal crossover-per-step ratio is one to three.

?It generates momentum,? Belfry said. ?It changes speed. If you have momentum and change of speed, you can do a lot in the NHL with those two things.?

You can see Kapanen winds up at his blue line. His curl time is accelerated with the crossovers (L over R). As he approaches the OZ and defenders, he switches to R over L briefly to pull his first checker up thinking he'll stop and curl for reinforcements, and then hits the gas going back to the L over R crossover to just divebomb the hapless goaltender.

Imagine Gauthier doing this.

Regardless of how fluid and clean their skating form is, players that don't have crossovers incorporated into their game yet will find themselves running out of steam by the time they break out of their own zone. Regular strides transfer a lot of the expended energy into sizeways acceleration, as forward travel = cosine of the stride angle (always < 1) * stride length.

This is a great post.

You should consider writing for one of many Leafs blogs, your breakdowns of the specific techniques involved are very informative and better than most of the analysis on TV.

 

[Arn]

Agreed, that was interesting - especially as someone who really has no idea about skating skills or techniques.

Also, is Laich down with the Marlies? I don't think he got into either game at the weekend?

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Also, is Laich down with the Marlies? I don't think he got into either game at the weekend?

As of right now it sounds like he's essentially a Marlie on paper only. Nobody really knows what's going on there.