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2024-25 Marlies General Thread


Niemela healthy scratch?
 
cw said:

Niemela healthy scratch?
Click to expand...
 
bustaheims said:
yetProbably just part of a rotation on the backend.
Click to expand...
Something happened last year
He came in last season as one of the teams top prospects.
He was playing in the top/2nd pairing.
During the latter part of the season, he seemed to get demoted to the third pairing
I think the Athletic? wrote about it. (I couldn't find the article quickly)
It wasn't the Athletic but that article notes the Leafs asked him to beef up last spring and he's the same weight.

Topi Niemela and other undersized prospects caught in Maple Leafs organizational shift​

There was an article on how they had cut his ice time on the Marlies last season. (haven't found it yet)

He fell to 3rd pairing in March or before:
He stayed there and started the playoffs on the 3rd pairing
He got elevated to 2nd pairing in the playoffs but finished with no points -1, 2 shots on goal.

He seemed to have a good prospect camp.
but they only dressed him once for a preseason game
- Cowan & Grebenkin got 4-5 preseason games
- Mattinen, Kokkonen, Webber & Rifai got 2 or more preseason games and are appearing in the 1/2 or 3/4 Marlies pairings
I saw no injury reports for Niemela

They played Niemela once with Rifai in the top pairing this season.

Mattinen, Kokkonen, & Rifai have dressed for all the Marlies games. They're all 30lbs or more heavier than Niemela. Webber is too.

I suspect at the very least, Treliving's preference for big dmen is catching up to him. He was ~156lbs when drafted, beefed up to 180 and stayed there over last summer.

I don't think that is all a complete accident. His stock within the Leafs org seems to have fallen.
 
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17-save shutout for Akhtyamov this afternoon over the Comets

Cedric Paré notched two goals and this line of Grebyonkin-Paré-Tverberg did most of the damage.
 
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Whats with the Marlies official site? Pretty embarrassing, like MLSE doesnt have enough dough to keep the site updated?
 
what are the Leafs trying to achieve with Matt Murray? He let in 3 goals on 21 shots on Wednesday. Why is not the Beast and Artur getting all the starts? Whats up?
 
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