Were the Marlies the best AHL team ever this year?

[X66]

I don't think winning a Calder Cup is any indication of the big team winning it next.

BUT

I'm very happy because:

- You always want your prospects to win, and learn how to play games deep into the spring
- You want the Marlies that will be on the big roster one day to increase their chemistry with each other.
- There are many potential Leafs and NHL roster players on this team, and you want them to continue to learn the system so they can be slotted into the main team, whether as a long-term piece or a call-up.

 

[LeafFever]

"Winning the Calder Cup Doesn't Guarantee Success. Just Look At(Use team as an example with much worse talent at the NHl level)..."
The Leafs had 105 points, have a terrific young core on top of the Marlies winning the Calder cup.

 

[al secord]

I hope they planned the parade. Traffic is a bitch and can hinder the festivities.

 

[LivingRentFree]

It's ok to dream.

Next year the TML might win their first playoff series in 15 years.

Plus our AHL team already won the Calder Cup and our NHL team wasn't much better for it.

Dream grasshopper. Dream.

This is my favourite reply I see from hockey fans. Show me an AHL team where the core guys are legit NHL prospects like this Marlies team. This wasn't a team lead by AHL plugs. This was a team of young guys looking to make an impact and they did it in style.

 

[Fogelhund]

They were a good team.. the best, who knows, and who cares. Typically, AHL Calder Cup isn't much of a measure of anything, because they are often won on the backs of career AHL veterans.

This edition of the Marlies, had 17 players, who are Leafs prospects, play at some point for them, during the Calder Cup run, out of the 22 total. Of these guys, maybe 13 have a chance at being NHL players one day... maybe not all of them will, but I'd guess eight of them play for the Leafs at some point, even as callups next year.

The Texas Stars meanwhile, have three guys, who might make the NHL, but won't be much more than role players, and otherwise have mostly AHL veterans in the lineup. The Texas Stars points leaders are 27, 28 and 34 years old. Three of the top four Marlies were 24, 23 and 20, one of which has less than 30 games total played in North America.

When your affiliate wins, and there isn't a player of note for your future, it doesn't matter. When your affiliate wins, and it's a true prospect team, it's something worth noting.

 

[Lilou]

It's ok to dream.

Next year the TML might win their first playoff series in 15 years.

Plus our AHL team already won the Calder Cup and our NHL team wasn't much better for it.

Dream grasshopper. Dream.

Don't nobody care about your ahl team boyo. Marlies just won and majority of the players are legit prospects. Not journeymen. And like the man said it's ok to be jealous. Just don't let your jealousy turn into blind hatred. You need to accept that the leafs (gods team) are trending upwards.

 

[Growler]

Norfolk a few years ago in the modern era IMO. Marlies 2018 #2

 

[Canada4Gold]

Ummm Norfolk? 28 straight wins. Then went 15-3 to win the Calder Cup including the last 10 games in a row.

The overall records of Toronto and Norfolk are close, 1 point difference, as well as the playoff win streak including 2 sweeps in a row. But the winning streak, and not having 2 do or die games like the Marlies did makes their year more impressive than this one.

 

[Fogelhund]

What about the 2012/13 Grand Rapids team? That was the year of the lockout, so the AHL had plenty of players that they wouldn't normally have had.

TheAHL.com

 

[JMCx4]

They had 54 wins in 76 games with a crazy 112 points.
Flew through most of the playoffs with the only real hiccup being the first round. ...

Has any team in the AHL ever been that dominate ?

Cincinnati Swords, 1972-73 season, record of 54-17-5 for 113 points while outscoring their opponents 351-206. Went on to win the 1973 Calder Cup with series victories over the Richmond Robins, the Virginia Wings & the Nova Scotia Voyageurs.

But I still think the '11-'12 NorAds remain the AHL's gold standard. AND they beat the Marlies 4 games to none to hoist the Calder Cup. So there!

 

[Elysian]

But everyone expected a good series. Texas was no easy team and most expected them to go the distance.

No one expected TX to go the distance, they barely even made the playoffs. A team that barely made the playoffs took the Marlies to game 7 in the finals. Certainly doesn't sound like the best AHL team ever.

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

More than anything, the Marlies benefitted from playing 30 games against 3 of the 4 worst teams in the league.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

The Norfolk team jumped to mind as the most obvious example, plus I'm sure that there are others. I'd venture a guess that a best team ever wouldn't have had two series go the distance en route to a championship.

 

[GarbageGoal]

They had 54 wins in 76 games with a crazy 112 points.
Flew through most of the playoffs with the only real hiccup being the first round.
Johnsson had a ridiculous playoffs leading his team in goals and the league in points while playing 4 Less games.
Won the Calder for the first time in history

Has any team in the AHL ever been that dominate ?

The 1998-99 Providence Bruins were the best AHL team I ever saw. 56-16-4-4 with 120 points. I'm biased, but the season was magical and they would win games in every conceivable fashion.

I would never call them the best AHL team ever because expansion watered down the league considerably since the 1970's. I know guys who were diehard AHL fans in the 70's who would say their teams were awesome, but the teams in the 60's were even better.....etc. etc....


By the way, do you follow the AHL? I mean, beyond your NHL team's farm club?

 

[GarbageGoal]

This is my favourite reply I see from hockey fans. Show me an AHL team where the core guys are legit NHL prospects like this Marlies team. This wasn't a team lead by AHL plugs. This was a team of young guys looking to make an impact and they did it in style.

Are you saying this in hindsight of every team that's won in the last ten years and then looking back at their roster and then anticipating what the Marlies prospects will do in the NHL compared to those guys? That's a nice pedestal to preach from, it would be sad if something happened to it.

By the way, the Marlies had 3 guys that scored 50 points. Two were Ben Smith and Chris Mueller. I'll just leave that there without comment, because as someone who never played the game I don't usually downgrade valuable professionals with nasty terms like "plugs" to smugly make a point.

 

[JMCx4]

The 1998-99 Providence Bruins were the best AHL team I ever saw. 56-16-4-4 with 120 points. I'm biased, but the season was magical and they would win games in every conceivable fashion. ...

I somehow overlooked that P-Bruins season in my championship-based search. The regular season points total plus capturing the Cup with a 4-1 series win over Rochester (after just one loss in the first 2 rounds then surviving a scare from Fredericton in the Conference Finals) has gotta put them very near the top of the OP's fantasy list. This article from The Hockey Writers gives a very entertaining recount of that Providence team's rise to temporary greatness - which is about all any team's fans can hope for.

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

then add to what GG is saying, JM.... THERE have been franchises who were awarded a franchise one year and just ascended to the top of that league, just as the Blues attempted to do in 1967/68, and Vegas almost did this past season....

Adirondack (now San Antonio) did that in their inaugural season..... but the prime example of what the Marlies accomplished and has not been duplicated since in any league, is to do what Colorado's Eagles DID in the ECHL, even though that wasn't an expansion team as it will be in 2018/19..... but Portland accomplished that 45 years ago in the AHL, going from absolutely nothing, a complete unknown, to a champion, in 1977/78, AND THEN repeating and/or defending that championship in 1978/79..... they are the Standard TO WHICH all current franchises should be measured even in the changing aspects of what the AHL had been up to that point, and since that.... the way the AHL is now run... that is the challenge that the Marlies and their fanbase must guard against.... it isn't easy, and change has already happened with Dubas being promoted to the Leafs

 

[BM14]

It's ok to dream.

Next year the TML might win their first playoff series in 15 years.

Plus our AHL team already won the Calder Cup and our NHL team wasn't much better for it.

Dream grasshopper. Dream.

A better dream would the Leafs winning a cup with a core of drafted and developed talent and then stop subsidizing all of the poor, weak teams financially.

 

[JMCx4]

then add to what GG is saying, JM.... THERE have been franchises who were awarded a franchise one year and just ascended to the top of that league, just as the Blues attempted to do in 1967/68, and Vegas almost did this past season....

Beyond this being an AHL discussion, it's a weak example to cite the '67/'68 STL Blues in this thread, HUTCH. They finished that regular season with 70 points, 8th out of 12 NHL teams. Then they were stretched to 7-game playoff series vs. the Flyers & the NoStars before being swept in the Finals by Montreal. So other than having the fortitude to stave off earlier playoff elimination by either expansion conference team who finished just 2 or 3 points higher, the Blues inaugural season (and the 49 official seasons since then) have been nothing beyond forgettable.

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

Beyond this being an AHL discussion, it's a weak example to cite the '67/'68 STL Blues in this thread, HUTCH. They finished that regular season with 70 points, 8th out of 12 NHL teams. Then they were stretched to 7-game playoff series vs. the Flyers & the NoStars before being swept in the Finals by Montreal. So other than having the fortitude to stave off earlier playoff elimination by either expansion conference team who finished just 2 or 3 points higher, the Blues inaugural season (and the 49 official seasons since then) have been nothing beyond forgettable.

technically, it's not, JM... NAME ANY OTHER EXPANSION TEAM in any league that has either advanced from a complete unknown to a championship, and then successfully backed that up by repeating that same feat..... We lived that in this state for 2 straight years, it's why the AHL continued to back the market despite the business aspects of the League.... even reporters who were in the market then and chronicled the franchise's initial arrival saw the exact same paradigm between Vegas and Portland, the only difference... Portland is the only professional hockey franchise, expansion or existing, that has accomplished successive championships in its league.

 

[Captain Crash]

technically, it's not, JM... NAME ANY OTHER EXPANSION TEAM in any league that has either advanced from a complete unknown to a championship, and then successfully backed that up by repeating that same feat..... We lived that in this state for 2 straight years, it's why the AHL continued to back the market despite the business aspects of the League.... even reporters who were in the market then and chronicled the franchise's initial arrival saw the exact same paradigm between Vegas and Portland, the only difference... Portland is the only professional hockey franchise, expansion or existing, that has accomplished successive championships in its league.

In the 1968 playoffs used a divisional bracket of East and West. The Original 6 became the East Division and the entire Expansion 6 were in the West. This means that no matter what, an expansion team would have to make the final and were doomed to be slaughtered by the surviving Original 6 team. It's a lot less impressive when you realize that an expansion team was guaranteed a place in the final that year.

This also has nothing to o with the thread, so let's move on...

 

[JMCx4]

technically, it's not, JM... NAME ANY OTHER EXPANSION TEAM in any league that has either advanced from a complete unknown to a championship, and then successfully backed that up by repeating that same feat..... We lived that in this state for 2 straight years, it's why the AHL continued to back the market despite the business aspects of the League.... even reporters who were in the market then and chronicled the franchise's initial arrival saw the exact same paradigm between Vegas and Portland, the only difference... Portland is the only professional hockey franchise, expansion or existing, that has accomplished successive championships in its league.

Interesting how YOU COMPLETELY ignored my rebuttal to your initial St. Louis Blues example, and launched off in a further defense of YOUR PORTLAND TEAM when I never denied that they deserved recognition in this thread. Don't change a hair for me.

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

Interesting how YOU COMPLETELY ignored my rebuttal to your initial St. Louis Blues example, and launched off in a further defense of YOUR PORTLAND TEAM when I never denied that they deserved recognition in this thread. Don't change a hair for me.

you seem to ignore that, JM, Whining again, I SEE, when you NEVER saw the franchise

 

[Man Bear Pig]

Leafs fans always hype everything around them...

They played seven games in the finals, it'd have been perfect if they shutout the first four games.

Now watch as Keefe joins Lou on Long Island.

I'm curious to whether you actually watched the series. Texas was absolutely gifted game 7 by the refs. I've honestly never seen such horrendous officiating in my life. Not that I'm saying the Marlies are the best ever, just that it was pretty evident something odd was going on. Watch the last ten minutes of game 7 and tell me something doesn't stink about the officials.

 

[Judas Tavares]

IDK, this team was no Charlotte Checkers.