Confirmed with Link: Leafs sign C Dylan Gambrell (1 year, $775k, one-way)

[Cor]

Click to read more...

 

[Mitch nylander]

Makes sense, we needed one more Ahl forward because of Johnstone, Zahorna, and Blandisi's departures.

He's a guy that could fill in as 13th forward if he has a good camp. Very vanilla two-way forward Par Lindholm esque.

 

[Its not your fault]

Seems confirmed now with him being on the roster all over on Google searches.

 

[shaner8989]

Good depth

 

[SprDaVE]

 

[BertCorbeau]

Meh. Depth is depth.

 

[ULF_55]

He was a PK guy for the Sens.
Blocks shots.
Not great on face-offs, so not someone you start for a PK as center.

 

[SprDaVE]

 

[notbias]

Good player for the Marlies and if we are down like 4 forwards we do a lot worse.

 

[Magic Man]

PPG for the Marlies or a gritty PK call up. Won't start with the Leafs, but if he ends up playing 20 games on the 4th line he should be able to eat some PK time and fill a 4th line role.

 

[Its not your fault]

Could be good.

 

[crump]

I asked Chatgpt to describe a bubble 4th line NHL player and this guys face came up.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

He is not a center at the NHL level, but he is a gritty option to pair nicely with Shaw, Holmberg, and Kressler in the AHL.

Shouldn't be getting any kind of NHL call-up though. He is like Gaudette 2.0.

 

[Squiffy]

How many contracts are we at here?

Edit: 43 looks like, not a concern

 

[Sun God Nika]

Sens fan.

He provides a whole lot of nothing. Shocked he got another NHL contract.

Makes sense, we needed one more Ahl forward because of Johnstone, Zahorna, and Blandisi's departures.

He's a guy that could fill in as 13th forward if he has a good camp. Very vanilla two-way forward Par Lindholm esque.

I wouldn't call him a two way forward. more of a one way guy who provides zero offence.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

Sens fan.

He provides a whole lot of nothing. Shocked he got another NHL contract.

44 with Samsonov and Abruzzese to sign, but I would not be surprised to see a couple of spots open up (Murray, maybe Timmins and some prospects). We still need a couple of defensemen and maybe a veteran goalie so we will be pretty close to the limit.

 

[LeafSteel]

Never heard of him but I can already tell he’s no Adam Brooks….

 

[Leaf Rocket]

Likely a marlies signing

 

[ITM]

Sens fan.

He provides a whole lot of nothing. Shocked he got another NHL contract.
I wouldn't call him a two way forward. more of a one way guy who provides zero offence.

Shocked Gambrell got a one year contract under a Milsky? Nnnnaaaah. Watch this!

Justin Holl! Come on down! You’re a Detroit Red Wing for three inexplicable years and you were paid more than Luke Schenn and only a million less than Stanley Cup champion, Selke and Conn Smythe winning Reilly O’Reilly.

And giggling hysterically, all of Leaf’s Nation put their arms around Hockeytown and said, It’s going to be terrible, but your draft position is going to be sensational!

 

[Schenn]

Low enough contract, definitely worth the Gambrell

 

[BallardEra]

I had him at #7 on my 2023 UFA tracker.

This is a steal.

 

[Stephen]

Seems like one of those second tier prospects you'd get on a team's prospect list that never blossomed.

 

[The Iceman]

He is not a center at the NHL level, but he is a gritty option to pair nicely with Shaw, Holmberg, and Kressler in the AHL.

Shouldn't be getting any kind of NHL call-up though. He is like Gaudette 2.0.

At this point Holmberg or Gambrell needs to be the 4th line centre if Domi is as Treliving projected as a winger.

 

[hockeywiz542]

Meet Dylan Gambrell, the new Maple Leafs centre and a 'silent assassin'

Dylan Gambrell's offseason signing with the Maple Leafs flew under the radar, much like the player and person himself.

theathletic.com

“(Gambrell) likes to relate to everyone, and in different ways, which is a pretty unique characteristic of his,” former Denver teammate Logan O’Connor said of Gambrell.

While Gambrell might not necessarily be as gregarious as, say, fellow new Leaf Ryan Reaves, his high comfort level with different types of teammates is nonetheless notable. Treliving said early in free agency that he had heard this Leafs team is a “quiet group.” And so Gambrell’s efforts to be consistently inclusive with teammates could have made him an attractive signing in Treliving’s eyes.

“He’s a guy who endears himself well to his teammates because of the quality of person he is, and the values he has,” Carle said.

Being low-maintenance helped Gambrell move on from Denver and earn three different contracts with the San Jose Sharks after being drafted in the second round of the 2016 draft. He spent most of his first full pro season in the AHL learning the ropes, and learning some hard lessons about sticking in the NHL.

Consistency didn’t come easy. Some nights Gambrell looked like the best player on the ice during a 51-game season with the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda, other nights he’d struggle to impact the game.

“He was really hard on himself,” Gambrell’s then-Barracuda head coach Roy Sommer said. “If he didn’t get the results he liked, it affected his personality a little bit. But he started getting better at that.”

Gambrell came to a realization not every young professional comes to: The highly skilled player he was in college, who produced plenty of offence over his three-year career, might not be the player he could be in the NHL.

He’d have to embrace more of the 200-foot game he played at times in college and focus on impacting the game with finer details as opposed to only on the scoresheet. It ended up becoming one of his most important realizations as a pro to date.

“I had to change my game,” Gambrell admits. “Obviously there was a maturing phase, and I realized my defensive game was going to be a much bigger thing. I always thought I was a 200-foot player, but I had to realize how important the defensive side of the game is, too.”

And again, he did it all with the kind of coachable attitude that has endeared him to those who know him. He might have been a relatively high draft pick with a promising offensive future, but his maturity helped him come to an understanding of his NHL future that can be difficult for some to swallow.

“I never once saw him text and complain about being on the fourth line,” Hillman said.

That’s not who he is.

“You’ve got to find your niche,” Gambrell said of his NHL career. “(Playing defensively) was something that helped keep me in the lineup.”

 

[ponder]

Where do ppl think he'll land on the depth chart? IMO the top 13 would be:

Bertuzzi - Matthews - Nylander
Knies - Tavares - Marner
Domi - Kampf - Jarnkrok
Lafferty - Holmberg - Reaves
Robertson

Line combos arguable (and likely changing a bunch as the season goes on), but I'd guess those 13 players. Although, there could be more moves, as we're still over the cap - wouldn't shock me to see one of Lafferty/Jarnkrok become a cap casualty, replaced by Robertson.

But then hard to rank these guys, in terms of who gets called up first:

- Steeves
- McMann
- Abruzzese
- Gambrell
- Hirvonen (sounds like he's expected to be over that concussion by the start of camp, and playing for the Marlies?)

And who knows, maybe even some first time pros like Voit could outplay expectations and shoot up the depth chart (Voit should be a Marlie next year, right?).