Vinni Lettieri is headed to the Maple Leafs, and Toronto badly needs whatever spark he brought to the Marlies.
The team is set to bring him up after last night's 4-1 home loss to the Islanders stretched the skid to three.
The forward has nine points in five games with the Marlies this season.
He was a big part of their Calder Cup run last season, with seven points in eight playoff games and the game-winner in Game 1 of the final.
At the NHL level, Lettieri brings 32 points over 155 career games. Nobody's mistaking him for a top-six fix.
The timing makes sense. John Tavares is on injured reserve and isn't expected back until at least Nov. 27.
Tavares had four power-play points before going down, a hole Toronto still hasn't filled.
Toronto's bottom six has gone silent while the losses pile up
Here's who should sit for him. Brandon Duhaime has gone nine games without a point, and a 3-4-2 team can't keep paying for that.
Duhaime isn't alone. Benoit-Olivier Groulx and Zack MacEwen have yet to register a point either.
Last night, Colton Sissons scored Toronto's lone goal and Easton Cowan picked up an assist.
Auston Matthews was held off the scoresheet in 19:56 of ice time. William Nylander went minus-3.
Calling up a hot AHL scorer is like pulling a fresh battery out of the drawer when the remote dies. It won't fix the TV, but at least something lights up.
Gavin McKenna fired four shots in 17:56, real ice time for a teenager who sat half a game not long ago.
Can a depth call-up actually move the needle? It has to start somewhere, and the bottom six has given Jim Hiller nothing to work with.
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San Jose visits Monday, the first chance for Lettieri to make his case.
If he brings even half of that Marlies touch, someone in the bottom six loses a job for good. A quiet debut would tell Hiller the problem runs deeper than any call-up can fix.
Should Vinni Lettieri replace Brandon Duhaime in the Maple Leafs lineup right away?
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