The Toronto Marlies will defend their Calder Cup with a new head coach, a new goaltending tandem and several championship winners fighting for NHL roles.
One of the bright spots of the 2025-26 season was the Toronto Marlies, being able to fight their way through the AHL Playoffs and find themselves champions after defeating the Chicago Wolves in five games.
It gave the organization a meaningful development win (also their first Calder Cup since 2018) and especially with how last season turned out - the fans needed something worth cheering for and it gave the youngsters some much needed postseason experience.
But now that we're closing in on the start of the 2026-27 season, the Marlies are going to be a lot different and their battle to defend the Calder Cup is going to be a little more difficult this time around.
John Gruden and Dennis Hildeby highlight the Marlies offseason turnover
First, the team no longer has head coach John Gruden behind the bench as he was promoted to Maple Leafs assistant coach under Jim Hiller.
Replacing him is Steve Sullivan, who was formerly an assistant with the Marlies from 2024-26 before he was promoted to the Maple Leafs mid-season after they fired Marc Savard.
Sullivan's familiarity with returning players will be important on maintaining chemistry, and he also added a new group of assistants including Mark Giordano, Denver Manderson, and former Marlies head coach Greg Moore while retaining Hannu Toivonen and Nick Biamote as Goaltending Coach and Video Coach respectively.
Though he still doesn't replace Gruden completely and it'll take time for Sullivan to truly settle in and know his team.
But not only that, but the team won't have the luxury of having both Artur Akhtyamov and Dennis Hildeby between the pipes as the latter was traded earlier this summer to Tampa Bay. It'll be up to Akhtyamov as well as Samuel Hlavaj and Ken Appleby to hold down the crease long enough for the newcomers to build chemistry.
They also won't have Easton Cowan as he'll likely be in a role with the Maple Leafs, meanwhile the team added five new players this summer on top of the NCAA signings whole will be fighting for a more prominent role this year - so we could see brand new lineups that need time to work.
They also added Cole McWard, Zack McEwen, and Henrik Rybinski along with the aforementioned five others so it'll be a competition for minutes with a lot of new faces.
Shaw, Lettieri and Villeneuve have to stabilize the changing Marlies lineup
In order for the Marlies to be successful, it's going to be up the mainstays to keep the ship steady. Logan Shaw, captain and fan favourite, will look to build on his strong 2025-26 season and be the voice to settle things in the locker room should there be some bumps in the road.
Vinni Lettieri has to come back with his offensive fire and needs to at least get close to replicating his postseason performance (26 points in 23 games) more steadily during the regular season and be that lethal power-play scorer he's known to be.
Speaking of the power-play, William Villeneuve is the quarterback of the man advantage and needs to keep being the offensive spark the Marlies need. While he may be closer to earning a shot with the Maple Leafs, if he's going to be in the AHL - he needs to be a leader.
Ryan Tverberg are going to be mainstays as well and Ben Danford is expected to be involved in getting top minutes as a defender.
Repeating a championship is never easy, especially when there's as much turnover as there has been for the Marlies. But they have a lot of returning players who helped lead them to the Calder Cup so while it might be improbable - it's certainly not impossible.
Do the Marlies have a genuine shot at repeating this season?
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