Fun has been in short supply for months with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Postseason disappointments have plagued the organization for years. They avoided that problem, however, with a disastrous 2025-26 regular season that kept them out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs altogether. Poor play, injuries, and steady controversy all added up to a team that regressed by 30 points from a season prior, and it came with consequences. General manager Brad Treliving lost his job before the season had even ended.

After a lengthy wait, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment named John Chayka the team’s new general manager. Hockey Hall of Fame member and former Leafs captain Mats Sundin returned to the organization as a senior executive advisor for hockey operations. Even those announcements came with considerable scrutiny, however.

On Wednesday came word that head coach Craig Berube was out after just two seasons. MLSE had brought in Berube as a new voice, a demanding presence, and someone who had coached the St. Louis Blues to a Stanley Cup championship in 2019. It looked like the right choice when 2024-25 Leafs finished fourth overall in the NHL with a 108-point performance. Then it all started to unravel with a second-round exit to the Florida Panthers.

It never got better, either, and this season ended with a 32-36-14 record, a 28th-place finish, and a team that fell out of contention early.

There is some hope, though. Start with the obvious, which is that the Leafs will have the first overall pick in June’s NHL Draft. They have had that top pick just twice in franchise history, but each one worked out rather well. In 1985, it was franchise icon Wendel Clark. Ten years ago brought Auston Matthews.

So, this incoming player should offer an immediate jolt to the Toronto prospect pool, if not this fall’s NHL roster.

Among the many criticisms aimed at the Leafs has been that prospect pool. In short, people are not high on it. As the team pushed to contend for the Stanley Cup, draft picks went out the door to help facilitate those ambitions. But those runs never really materialized, the Leafs never got anywhere close to the Stanley Cup, and they were left short on draft picks and prospects. As recently as last season out went Fraser Minten went to the Boston Bruins, where he had 17 goals as an NHL rookie.

But thanks to the Toronto Marlies, the higher-end prospects that the Leafs do possess have a chance to accelerate their development that much more. So far the Marlies, a fourth-place finisher in the North Division, have knocked out the Rochester Americans and the Laval Rocket. Another test comes Thursday night when the Marlies visit Cleveland to begin their best-of-five North Division Finals against the Monsters.

In a postseason in which three of the AHL’s four regular-season division champions are already out, the North Division has been particularly upended. The Marlies took out the first-place Laval Rocket last round. Out went the second-place Syracuse Crunch, victimized by Cleveland.

In a city that needs something upbeat for its hockey scene, the Marlies have been able to provide a bit of optimism. Playoff experience, too, for someone like 20-year-old forward Easton Cowan, a 2023 first-round pick who has since become a Leafs regular. 

Does Cowan even qualify as a “prospect” at this point?

This is, after all, someone who played 66 regular-season games with the Leafs as a rookie pro and posted 29 points (11-18-29). But rather than have him go home for the summer or perhaps get a spot with Canada at the IIHF World Championship, the Leafs wanted him in the Calder Cup Playoffs.

So far Cowan has 2-4-6 in eight playoff games. But maybe there is more. Perhaps he can start to take over shifts and longer stretches of play. One benefit of the Calder Cup Playoffs, especially with a parent team that is not playing, is that the AHL affiliate’s roster is much more stable. Rather than the steady arrivals-and-departures that is a regular-season reality, teams are able to settle in with much more consistent line-ups. Cowan has been able to skate the left side of a top-six line with a pair of 24-year-olds in Jacob Quillan and Ryan Tverberg. Quillan played 23 games with the Leafs and provided 14-22-36 in only 40 games for the Marlies. Tverberg turned in 15 goals.

This week opened with the arrival of defenseman Ben Danford from the OHL’s Brantford Bulldogs. With the Bulldogs seeing their playoff run unravel last week against the Barrie Colts, it freed up Danford to come to the Marlies. The Leafs chose Danford 31st overall in the 2024 NHL Draft, and he captained the Oshawa Generals before going in a trade to Brantford. He also won a bronze medal in January at the IIHF World Junior Championship. At the least, he will be able to practice with the club. Perhaps there is some game action ahead, too, though of course nobody around the Marlies has been willing to confirm anything publicly.

“Last thing I want to do is just go home and sit around for a couple weeks,” Danford told the Toronto media this week. “So, this is going to be fun.”

Danford is not going into a completely unknown situation. He has experience in development camp and training camp with the Toronto organization.

Said Marlies head coach John Gruden after having Danford get practice ice this week, “I could see he definitely looks comfortable. I mean, it's going to take him some time to get used to it. It's important that he's with us now. Again, he's a huge part of this organization, and he's a huge part of our group, and I expect him to be a huge part as we continue to move forward.”

So, take Cowan and Danford. Mix in an Artur Akhtyamov-Dennis Hildeby goaltending tandem that has been quite solid. There is fourth-year William Villeneuve leading the AHL in playoff scoring by a defenseman. Rookie forward Luke Haymes had a 17-goal regular season. Add Quillan, Tverberg, a few others, and this Marlies run is not propelled solely by veterans.

After such a disappointing fall, winter, and start to spring, perhaps the Marlies can make it a happy May and June for Toronto fans.

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