Easton Cowan is the only true lock coming out of the Marlies room and into next season's Toronto Maple Leafs lineup.
The Leafs finished last season with 78 points and the 28th overall ranking in the league, a number that still stings heading into training camp.
Cowan played 66 games last season, posting 11 goals and 18 assists for 29 points as he found his footing at the NHL level.
Cowan closed the year with seven points in his final ten games, five of them assists, and a real look on the right side next to Auston Matthews or John Tavares.
The blue line does not offer much swagger either. Morgan Rielly, Jake McCabe and Oliver Ekman-Larsson are all over thirty, and the group leans veteran over dynamic.
So where do the actual Marlies fit into all this? Benoit-Olivier Groulx might be first in line if the middle six needs an emergency arm.
Groulx put up five points in 13 games with the Leafs last season, three goals and two assists, including two game-winning goals in limited minutes.
The waiver math complicates every one of these depth calls
Jake Quillan got a 23-game look and never solved his shooting touch, finishing with one goal and two assists while flashing real speed.
William Villeneuve appeared in three games and Ryan Tverberg in two, hardly enough of a sample to judge either one heading into camp.
Emil Andrae was the quiet story, posting 13 points in 61 games with a plus-15 rating that stands out on a blue line that leaked all year.
The crease is where Toronto's plan gets uncomfortable. Sergei Bobrovsky posted a .876 save percentage in 52 games last season.
Leaning on a 37-year-old with that kind of number feels less like a plan and more like a bet the front office keeps doubling down on.
Anthony Stolarz backed him up with a .893 mark in 26 games, and Artur Akhtyamov has only three NHL appearances to show for his Calder Cup run.
Training camp will sort a lot of this out. But most of these Marlies are fighting for scraps right now, not jobs.
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Should the Maple Leafs bench a veteran to give Emil Andrae a real shot on the blue line?
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