Monday Morning Ramblings featuring hot goalies in the AHL playoffs, and trade fallout.

The Toronto Marlies prevented another Brind'Amour championship (namely Rod's son Skyler from winning the Calder Cup), with a 4-3 win over the Chicago Wolves this past Friday.

The Marlies got 16 wins, but not by winning four best of seven series. Teams not getting a bye in the Calder Cup actually play five rounds A best of three, followed by two best of fives, followed by two best of sevens.

For the Marlies this year, it included:

2 wins against the Rochester Americans. Devon Levi played all 3 games for Rochester, 0.919%.

3 wins against the Laval Rocket. Kaapo Kahkonen played in all 5 games, 0.871%, but Hunter Shepard did get in 2 periods of play for Laval. Both are unrestricted free agents.

3 wins against the Cleveland Monsters. Zach Sawchenko, 0.914%, played in 8 of 9 playoff games for the Monsters. Sawchenko is a 28 year old unrestricted free agent.

4 wins against Wilkes-Barre Scranton. Sergei Murashov played in all 15 playoff games posting an impressive 0.931%.

and 4 wins against the Chicago Wolves. Former Maple Leaf Cayden Primeau, 0.913%, played in 18 of their 21 playoff games. Primeau, son of Keith, was drafted 199th overall in 2017. His 3 game stint with the Maple Leafs saw him allow 13 goals on 80 shots (0.838%).

Primeau is an RFA with arbitration rights and will get to move up the pecking order if Frederik Andersen leaves in free agency. The Hurricanes have only $3.9 million tied up in their projected starters; Kochetkov ($2.0M) and Bussi ($1.9M).

With the trade of Joseph Woll to the Philadelphia Flyers, the Maple Leafs starting duo at this point appears to be Anthony Stolarz and Dennis Hildeby.

Hildeby can no longer be sent down to the AHL without hitting waivers. Hildeby went 1-1 with a 0.921% in these AHL playoffs.

However it was another 24 year old, 4th Rd pick, that stole the show. Artur Akhtyamov from Kazan, Russia led the playoffs in minutes played, games (22) and wins (15) claiming playoff MVP honours.

Akhtyamov finished the AHL playoffs with a record of 15-7, a save percentage of 0.923%, and a GAA of 2.22. If he continues this strong play, the Leafs might need to make another goalie trade to make room for him on their NHL roster.

The three best goalies in the playoffs were the aforementioned Akhtyamov, Trent Miner (Colorado Eagles, 11-6, 0.925%), and Sergei Murashov (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, 8-7, 0.931%).

Miner is stuck behind the Jennings-winning duo of Blackwood and Wedgewood. Wedgewood has one more year under contract before he hits free agency. However, Miner also has to compete with younger prospect Ilya Nabokov, drafted in the 2nd round of the 2024 draft.

After letting Stuart Skinner walk to free agency, the Pittsburgh Penguins will likely have a tandem featuring Silovs (RFA) and one of Joel Blomqvist (also an RFA) and Sergei Murashov (signed one more year at $936k).

Toronto born agitator Michael Pezzetta won the Calder Cup with his hometown AHL team.

The other Maple Leafs trade this past week saw them flip a 5th round pick for another hometown boy in Darren Raddysh.

Raddysh's point total should decrease being away from Nikita Kucherov, however he will still be with talents like Matthews and Nylander on the Leafs top power play unit, so the points decrease won't be that significant. Emil Andrae could get the first look on the second power play unit.

William Villeneuve, Marlies defenseman who led the playoffs in assists (21), might also get called up in case of injuries to Raddysh or Andrae. Villeneuve finished with 23 pts in 24 playoff games, and just inked a 775k AAV two way contract for one year.

This also spells the end of Morgan Rielly as a Leaf. Rumours have him heading West with teams like the Kraken and the Sharks holding a lot of cap space to accommodate his $7.5M AAV x 4 years.

If a trade doesn't materialize, and he is playing for the Leafs next season, don't expect much offense as the prized offseason addition (D. Raddysh) will be handed the offensive opportunities.