After a rough stretch where Leafs fans were freaking out over every big thing (lots of goals against, no goals for) and little thing (Auston Matthews’ ice time in ONE FREAKING PERIOD!), their dominant 4-2 win over the Sabres was a nice breath of fresh air.

But enough about the Leafs. No one likes them these days. Let’s talk about what really gets people going... a goalie prospect drafted in the seventh round signing a contract with an ECHL team!

Okay, I meant prospects in general. Because now’s a fun time.

First, aside from Bouthillier maybe sorta starting his professional career (maybe sorta for good?), let’s talk about some of the things that have gone well:

  • Jeremy Bracco has 70 points in 65 AHL games, putting him in a tie for 2nd in the entire AHL with Carter WHARRGHARBL and 1 point behind Daniel Carr for the lead. It earned him the AHL player of the week a couple of days ago.
  • 18 year old defenseman Rasmus Sandin, who wasn’t really known for his offense, has an 8 game point streak where he’s put up 1 goal and 11 assists in that span. He’s got 24 points in 37 games, which is good for 12th in rookie defensemen in the AHL, except he’s only played 37 games and he’s a year or more younger than all of the others.
  • Adam Brooks is also on a hot streak. He has 9 points in 9 games in March, and is averaging over 4 shots per game. He assisted on the Marlies’ first goal and scored the winner in overtime last night:/
  • Goalie Ian Scott was named to the WHL’s Eastern Conference First All-Star team after a stellar season, where his team is a favourite to win the WHL title and Memorial Cup.
  • Recently signed defensive prospect Joseph Duszack was named a top 10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, given to the best NCAA player of the year. He also saw his first AHL game with the Marlies last night, not scoring points but getting four shots on net./

If you want more scouting on some of the top Leafs prospects, Kevin Papetti at MLHS delved into Bracco, Sandin and Liljegren recently.

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