Leafs find a home for 4 Growlers

With the unfortunate, but largely necessary to cancel the Newfoundland Growlers season, the Leafs organization was left with a number of players in search of a place to play. It seems like they’ve found a home for four of the players, including one of their promising young defensemen.

Noel Hoefenmayer is probably the player of note here, as the OHL defenseman of the year, and promising prospect is amongst the group relocating to Kansas for the year. The fact that he’ll get a chance to develop and show what he can do to earn an entry level contract is encouraging, and hopefully we’ll see opportunities for other Growlers in the near future.

Additionally the move opens the door to potentially recalling some players as needed from the ECHL to the Marlies in season. The recall would presently involve a 14 day quarantine period that might be difficult logistically, but it’s safe to assume there will be expanded AHL rosters that will mean Toronto won’t entirely be relying on swift recalls from Wichita.

With the NHL taxi squad and expanded rosters for the NHL it’s also likely that the Marlies will be absorbing a number of the Growlers players as depth for the season and I’m sure we’ll get a better idea of what that roster is starting to look like once the training camp invites go out.