Four Up and Four Down in a Marlies and Leafs Swap

YOU GET AN NHL DEBUT! YOU GET AN NHL DEBUT! EVERYONE’S GETTING AN NHL DEBUT!!!!

The Leafs have called up Tobias Lindberg who will be making his NHL debut. Additionally Andrew Campbell will be making his Leafs debut tonight, and Kasperi Kapanen and T.J. Brennan are returning for another tour of duty. 

Easily, Lindberg is the player to be excited about in today’s shuffle. Not because he’s the best player coming up, that’s still Kapanen, but because for a lot of us it will be our first look at a good young prospect who was the cherry on top of the Phaneuf trade. 

Lindberg has had 12 points in 19 games since joining the Marlies and overall has 34 points in 53 AHL games this season, his AHL rookie year. Last year the 20 year old was a key member of the Oshawa Generals, before that thriving in Swedish U-20 league.

The Marlies captain is the other player making his Leafs debut tonight, and this is largely in line with what the Leafs have done in previous years, giving the Marlies captain a taste of the NHL as a thank you for what he does in the AHL. 

Campbell, like Brennan is a little older, and is more of a conservative style of defender. It will be interesting to see what he looks like in the NHL now after a year with Sheldon Keefe.

We’ve seen him before, we know what he’s supposed to do, but Brennan’s NHL game never seems to match with his AHL one. Similar to Campbell, this seems to be a “thanks for helping with the kids” stint, that or they are both here because they want some of the key guys who have been with the Leafs to get back to working with the Marlies prior to their playoff run.

Obviously we should be excited that he’s back. He didn’t have the best debut with the Leafs in his previous call-up, but certainly no one is going to write him off because of that, and he’s returned to the Marlies and has been one of the main reasons they’ve continued to be a dominant force.

Brown, Carrick, Hyman, and Valiev have all had solid showings with the Leafs, particularly Hyman and Carrick who look like locks for the Leafs next season. 

This move doesn’t look like a slight on any of them, but rather a necessary way of making sure everyone gets a look at the NHL level this year. 

At this point the only Marlies who have not seen NHL time are Colin Smith and Sam Carrick, and with Smith’s success it seems like he too could get a shot at some point in the next week and half, and that should help determine whether he’ll be a part of the organization moving forward.