Maple Leafs assign Sparks, Arcobello to AHL Marlies

The Toronto Maple Leafs have made a pair of roster moves this afternoon, sending Goaltender Garret Sparks and forward Mark Arcobello to the Toronto Marlies.

In the case of Sparks, the move is mostly a paper one. The 22-year-old rookie had been rehabilitating with his familiar Marlies doctors for the past week and travelled with the team to Winnipeg this weekend for their pair of wins against the Manitoba Moose. The Leafs were unable to officially send him down, however, until he was given a clean bill of health and ready to be activated off of injured reserve.

Sparks played five games for the Leafs in late November and early December. He built himself an immediate fan base by becoming the first Leafs goaltender to get a shutout in his NHL debut and put up a respectable 0.915 during his stint before tweaking his groin during Toronto’s 5-4 loss to San Jose on December 17th, of which he played eleven and a half minutes.

Mark Arcobello also makes his way back down. The 27-year old centre/winger has been bounced up and down for the past two weeks, but has still been unable to pick up his first point of the season. With Josh Leivo going up, he’ll return to the Marlies, where he’s had much more offensive success In 24 games, Arcobello has 27 points, and at least one shot on goal in every game.

Both teams play their next games tomorrow. The Marlies take on the Comets in Utica, while the Leafs face the Blue Jackets in Columbus. Both games start at 7 PM.