I’m not going to lie, when I said I could grab the Martin Marincin news hit, I figured that he got called up because I haven’t seen him in a while.

But no, he’s been here the whole time, he just hasn’t played.

Marincin got off to a solid start this season, making the starting lineup out of camp alongside Rasmus Sandin. But then Justin Holl started to play well on the bottom pair, and once Travis Dermott came back, that left Marincin to be a consistent healthy scratch for the Leafs.

Marincin has played one game since Oct. 21, and that game was against Philadelphia when Jake Muzzin was injured. The Oct. 21 game was an adventure for Marincin, and likely saw him scratched because of, well, this:

Marincin got no points in his seven games with the Leafs, had a 47.77% 5v5 CF% and a 43.74% 5v5 xGF%. So yeah, he wasn’t really good.

But, he’ll likely see some success with the Marlies. In 60 games between 2017 and 2019 with the Marlies, Marincin had five goals and 25 points, and plays like the Martin Marincin we all want in the NHL. But, it’s more likely that he’s just a defensive TJ Brennan for the Leafs.

And with him eligible for waivers, it made sense to send him down and give him games.