Knies check-in, Niemelä & Hirvonen watch, Minten on fire: Leafs Prospect Roundup

The home stretch of the NHL regular season is upon us, and that means that prospects in other leagues around the world are also wrapping up their seasons. The most notable of those prospects for Leafs fans is undoubtedly Matthew Knies, who is winding down his sophomore season at the University of Minnesota.
Knies and his Gophers teammates earned a first-round bye in the BIG10 tournament after finishing first in the conference, but they were back in action this past weekend in a semifinal matchup against Michigan State. Things started slowly for Minnesota as they worked to get their legs under them after so much time off, but they walked away with a tidy win in Saturday’s single-elimination game against the Spartans, advancing to the BIG10 Championship game against the Michigan Wolverines for the second consecutive year.
Down 1-0 in the opening frame, the Gophers’ powerplay got to work with Knies setting up Jaxon Nelson on the doorstep to tie the game. Minnesota never looked back from there, and Michigan State had no answer as the Gophers piled up five unanswered goals to come away with the victory. Fellow Leafs prospect Mike Koster also notched a pair of assists in Saturday’s semifinal.

Matthew Knies sets up Jaxon Nelson ou …

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Author: Nick Richard / The Leafs Nation

The 2023 Blue Jays, Position by Position: Toronto’s catching tandem could be the best in baseball

It’s not a stretch to say that the Blue Jays have one of the best, if not the best, catching tandems in the league.

When we last looked at the backstop in the last Position by Position article, it seemed a remote possibility that the Jays could roll with three catchers.
However, on December 23rd, 2022, the Jays traded their top prospect Gabriel Moreno (and Lourdes Gurriel Jr.) for Daulton Varsho. In yesterday’s article, we looked at Daulton Varsho the outfielder, but he is also a catcher. That seems like a good place to start.
Daulton Varsho:
I went into larger detail about what Varsho could do with the bat, so let’s just focus on his defence behind the plate.
While Varsho is a fantastic defender in the outfield, behind the plate is a different story.
Catcher Defensive Adjustment is a statistic created by Baseball Prospectus, focusing on framing, blocking, and throwing. 0 is average, while a gold glove calibre defender has a CDA of around 10. In the case of Varsho, he had a -1.5 CDA with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2022.

Center fielder who plays catcher? Catcher who plays center field?@DaultonVarsho25 is one of one. pic.twitter.com/8K7V7O3e67
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) April 17, 2022

In terms of Defensive Runs Saved, he isn’t any better. This past season, Varsho had a -3 DRS, which was actually an improvement from his -6 in 2021. He also saw limited time behind the plate, only catching 175 innings (down from 319 in 2021).
While Varsho can catch, it’s likely a case of if the Jays desperately need an emergency catcher. Even then, Varsho has plenty of value defensively in …

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Author: Brennan Delaney / Blue Jays Nation

Woll breaks record, Abruzzese clicking, Johnstone’s first, and Toronto’s All-Stars: Marlies Weekly

Woll breaks record, Abruzzese clicking, Johnstone’s first, and Toronto’s All-Stars: Marlies Weekly

Another week, another stretch of games won by the Marlies in what has been a remarkable season to date.
Toronto had four games scheduled throughout the last week, though they only played three. On Friday night, while the Marlies were facing the Manitoba Moose, a fan experienced a medical emergency at the end of the first period.
Both teams — and the AHL — agreed to suspend the game when it was 1-1 after the opening frame. The AHL said the game will be completed at a later date though they haven’t specified when that might be just yet.
The other three games that the Marlies played this week went very well. Matter of fact, Toronto won every one of them.
They defeated Laval 4-2 last Sunday, then beat the Manitoba Moose 3-2 on Wednesday, and after their game was suspended on Friday, the Marlies bussed to Rochester and won their game against the Amerks on Saturday, 7-5.
Joseph Woll played in all three wins this week and has since broke the Marlies record for most consecutive wins in a season. And after defeating Rochester on Saturday, the 24-year-old is now undefeated in 10-straight games this season while holding a .926 save percentage.
READ MORE: ‘He’s never out of the play’: Joseph Woll ties Marlies record and could break it w …

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Author: Nick Barden / The Leafs Nation

Jacks of all trades, masters of none: Are the Leafs overdoing it with Swiss Army knife players?

Over a stretch in the late 90s, everyone in my family struggled annually with what to get my Dad for Christmas. The solution seemed to be that every year he’d wind up with a Swiss Army Knife, a Leatherman, or some other utilitarian tool that was great for stuffing in a tacklebox, backpack, travel kit, or whatever. These are great tools for when you are in a jam and need to rely on the next best thing to the proper tool, but much like my Dad at the turn of the century, the Leafs are over-encumbered with Swiss Army knives that were a pleasant surprise as a stopgap, but a miserable Plan A for addressing problems.
In the grandest tradition of complaining about the Leafs, I’ve chosen to wait until after they’ve had a 5-2 win, featuring a goal from one of those Swiss Army knives, set up by another Swiss Army knife, and the third Swiss Army knife managed a breakaway as well (although that result was predictably underwhelming.) Still, it’s worth noting that if we are going with our recency bias on this, Calle Jarnkrok, Pierre Engvall, and Alex Kerfoot all performed well on Saturday night.
Now with recent success acknowledged, let’s mo …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

TLN Prospect Rankings: Where did we get it wrong?

We’re heading into the home stretch of our countdown of the top Leafs prospects, and as we near the end, it’s time to reflect on some of those we might have gotten wrong. Maybe we loved them too much or maybe not enough. Either way, some of our voters and some of our non-voters weigh-in on the TLN rankings.
Dylan Murphy:
Maybe it’s just recency bias seeing him at the World Juniors, but Roni Hirvonen looks ready to make the jump to North America, perhaps even ready to make his NHL debut in a depth role. I’ll admit to not seeing him play all that often, but from what I have seen, he’s a creative playmaker with a nose for the net. The Leafs are weak at the LW position, but between Robertson, Knies, and Hirvonen, the team’s future (at that position) is in good hands.
Ryan Hobart:
I’m continually surprised by how little recognition Axel Rindell gets from prospects people. He didn’t get into our top 20 prospects this year or last. While being an older prospect at 22 years old, his expected move to the Marlies this season could prove an excellent launching pad to the Leafs. If he can take over the Marlies’ powerplay as a quarterbac …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

Tuesday Rumour Report: Sandin and goaltending remain the priority, Aston-Reese looking like a lock, and “Malgin?”

It’s the home stretch of rumours and speculation and we’re a day from signing and trade announcements. That’s a bit of a relief. Soon we can stop guessing at who fits into the Leafs roster and instead spend the next couple of months creating Leafs line combinations in notes on our phone while sitting on the toilet (maybe that’s an oddly specific trait of mine that isn’t a universal experience.)
Anyways, Elliotte Friedman had a fair bit of Leafs information crammed into a tiny paragraph today, so we’re going to blow it up and turn it into a lot more.
Toronto will look for another goalie and try to sign Rasmus Sandin with their remaining cap room. One team indicated that even 1B or No. 2 goalies could still do very well in this market, so it won’t be as easy as it sounds. One potential depth target for the Maple Leafs: forechecker extraordinaire Zach Aston-Reese. They could also bring back Denis Malgin from Switzerland.
It really doesn’t feel like we can say a lot more on the first two things. The importance of getting Sandin figured out and fast is painfully clear. Having nothing to show for Sandin but a second round pick would be disastrous, but so would be paying a ransom for his contract. He’s kinda backed the Leafs into a corner and we’ve seen t …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation