Are FreeBird and TWS one anothers alter egos?
I think Marlies are super thankful for having received AJ and Dermy. Had Engvall not emerged as a player, I'm fairly certain we would have seen Kappy sent down too instead of being let go to the WC. As much as he would help the Marlies on the Calder run, he would block out a few young kids who can really use the experience of the playoffs.
Probably not. Bracco is sitting right now. Bracco likely would have been put in a lot more had Engvall and Johnsson not been around. After that, they'd probably be fine with Baun or Clune or even some of their ATO's (Ferguson for example) in there as well. As 4th liners, you could do a lot worse.
As for the Marlies, they have 2 extra LD and an extra RD. I think they are facing injuries right now, but it's not like they weren't able to get by without Dermott on defense. They did pretty well throughout the year without him, and other than a few bum games from Sparks, did well in Utica without him as well.
Remember that the Leafs have not used any of their prospects on ATO's either. Middleton, Gordeev, McGregor, Rasanen, etc. were not even considered for the Marlies because they would never even had a small sniff at the roster.