Don't count much help for the Maple Leafs from the Marlies

The Toronto Marlies finished second best record in the AHL Western Conference and advanced to the Calder Cup finals. You'll hear from the media and Leafs management about how important those playoff games were and how many of the Marlies will be competing for Leafs jobs in the fall.

Don't count on it.

Not sure how many of those reporters actually made it to a game. I watched many of those playoff games and although they are a strong AHL team, the Marlies have few NHL calibre players. If they did they would have been up helping the Leafs make the playoffs.

This is my list of the top 6 Marlies players:

1. Ben Scrivens
2. Matt Frattin
3. Jake Gardner
4. Mike Zigomanis
5. Nazem Kadri
6. Korbinian Holzer

Jake Gardner is already a Maple Leafs and got a ton of ice time in his rookie season. Matt Frattin made the Leafs out of training camp and played most of the season with the big club.

Ben Scrivens was brilliant during the regular season and playoffs. However Leafs management is committed to bringing in a veteran starter so the best that Scrivens can do is to compete with James Reimer for the back up job. Since Reimer is the incumbent either an injury or total collapse would be needed to dislodge him from the Leafs roster.

Nazem Kadri is clearly good enough to play in the NHL - he is more physical and smarter with the puck. With Ron Wilson gone, Kadri should make the team coming out of camp. As for Zigomanis, he has had a taste of the NHL and at age 28 I don't expect he will be given another opportunity. Holzer was the best Marlie defenseman and will be competing for a Leafs job in the fall. He may very well have a position to compete for if offseason trades deplete the Leafs blueline.

That's about it. Joe Colborne was pretty much invisible on the ice though he was playing hurt. Still he went about 2 months without scoring a goal. He's not even close to being ready. Jamie Blacker and Jerry D'Amigo looked good at times but also not ready.

Once you past by the best couple of players who are in fact already Maple Leafs, there isn't much there to help the big club. Which is also par for the course.