Prospect Info: Marlies/Prospects Thread - It's finally puckdrop, baby!

[Martin Skoula]

Him and Sandin would have applied here too if not the injury need to get games in this season. You don't know, we may need them later on in the season.

I like Bogo's game, but with his injury history it seems like a matter of time. I don't want to be in a position where Marincin is going to be playing important minutes again.

 

[LeafChief]

Wouldn't mind seeing Liljegren get some NHL games when Bogosian needs a rest.

Rielly - Brodie
Muzzin - Liljegren
Dermott - Holl

Insulate Liljegren by putting him in a spot where he can play with a vet. Putting Holl with Dermott would hopefully calm Dermott's game down a bit.

 

[diehardleafsfan9878]

On the injury reserve, so probably NHL 21?

Nope he's not even in the game last time I played which was months ago but still.

 

[BoredBrandonPridham]

Wouldn't mind seeing Liljegren get some NHL games when Bogosian needs a rest.

Rielly - Brodie
Muzzin - Liljegren
Dermott - Holl

Insulate Liljegren by putting him in a spot where he can play with a vet. Putting Holl with Dermott would hopefully calm Dermott's game down a bit.

I often see people talking about bogo needing a rest. He’s only 30. Where does the resting stuff come from? He’s physiologically identical to Muzzin — same age, height, weight — and gets 7 minutes less TOI per game.

 

[The Iceman]

With Jack Campbell and Ian Scott out with injuries, the Maple Leafs’ organizational goaltending depth chart is a mess right now. These injuries have impacted the AHL’s Marlies, where goaltender Andrew D’Agostini, playing on a professional tryout contract, has won two of the team’s first four games while posting a .912 save percentage.
They are the only four games he has ever played in the AHL. At 27, D’Agostini is the oldest rookie in the league this season. His career to date has been spent bouncing throughout the CIS, ECHL and SPHL. He concedes that many players his age who had yet to crack the AHL would have given up years earlier.
Yet D’Agostini is unlike many 27-year-olds. Throughout his vagabond journey, he has steadfastly held on to his dream of playing in the NHL. And now he’s closer than he’s ever been before.
“I really don’t know what the future is going to hold,” said D’Agostini. “But I feel like a newfound spark for my hockey career has been created.”
The AHL is typically not a league for 27-year-old rookie goalies. There are 10 goalies older than D’Agostini who have played in the AHL so far this season. Each of them has played multiple seasons in the NHL or AHL.
Since 2012, D’Agostini has dressed for 11 different teams in five different leagues.
“As crazy and out there as it sounds, as long as I’m still passionate about playing hockey, my goal will always be the NHL, no matter what,” he said. “I never saw myself working one of those 9-to-5 jobs. I’ve had such a passion for playing, for reaching my full potential that I just could not let it go.”
In March 2013, during a PTO with the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones while he was up from the Peterborough Petes, his professional career almost ended as quickly as it began. Just 22 seconds after taking over the net in the third period, D’Agostini allowed a goal on his first shot against. When the game ended, the then 19-year-old wondered if his lone foray into professional hockey was destined to be but a footnote in a meaningless game.
“I thought, ‘Well this was fun,’” said D’Agostini. “And that was that.”
But after that game, the Cyclones told him the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals needed a goalie to dress the following night in Chicago. He didn’t suit up for the Admirals, but he did get to stay in a decent hotel. Enough to regale his Petes teammates about it when he flew back to Peterborough the next day.
“A whole different world of hockey,” said D’Agostini.
What stood out during his 24-hour sojourn in Chicago was how well the Admirals welcomed him and made him feel like part of the organization. If an AHL franchise could make an unknown 20-year-old rent-a-goalie feel important, why shouldn’t he believe he could be a professional goalie?
“It only takes leadership out of a few guys to make a huge impact on people,” he explained.
In the summer of 2014, undrafted after five seasons with the Petes, D’Agostini received offers from Canadian university teams. The list of players who move from U Sports to the NHL is a short one.
“It was discouraging for someone who was so hungry to play professional hockey,” said D’Agostini.
He opted to finish his public management degree at the University of Guelph. His only condition for the recruiting staff was that they’d adopt his Saves for CF program, which raises funds for Cystic Fibrosis research. D’Agostini started the program after the mother of a young boy with the disease visited the Petes and shared her family’s story. You can read more on Andrew’s fundraising efforts here.
When he arrived in Guelph in the fall of 2014, he roomed with Cole Hamblin. During the preseason, Hamblin began experiencing back pain and was quickly diagnosed with mucoepidermoid carcinoma, a form of gland cancer. He died that November.
“You could tell he was carrying the load of the death of his roommate,” said University of Guelph men’s hockey coach Shawn Camp. “His clothes were still in his room. His pickup truck was still there. (D’Agostini) helped pack up his stuff. And Dags, just with the character he has, was then our best player in the second half of the season.”
The Gryphons won the bronze medal at the 2015 CIS University Cup Men’s Hockey Championship.
After his two seasons in Guelph, the ECHL’s Brampton Beast called in the spring of 2016 asking him to join them late in their season. He agreed, in the hope of working his way up the ladder. That ladder ended up being far steeper than he imagined.
Despite working part-time jobs, his low pay meant he still could not afford to pay rent. So he spent nights sleeping in his Jeep.
“I just was never ready to give up hockey,” said D’Agostini. “I knew that these are the type of stories that are really inspirational for people who lose hope and faith.”
In his three seasons with the Beast, which ceased operations last week, he endured multiple concussions, dislocated fingers and an ankle injury. His craziest ailment came with the Allen Americans while on a PTO in the 2018-19 preseason when his teeth “exploded” after taking a shot to the face. The pain was so unbearable that he had an emergency root canal the morning of a game.
“I was a little high, and half of my face was numb playing this exhibition game,” said D’Agostini. “I didn’t tell the coach what happened. I just showed up and I thought, ‘This is your opportunity to get back in the loop here.’”
Despite winning that game, he was sent down to the Pensacola Ice Flyers of the Southern Professional Hockey League.
“It’s just another chapter of your story,” he told himself. “Go, and make the most of it.”
“(Teammates) looked at me like I had three eyes when I would go on the ice 45 minutes before practice to work on my skating,” said D’Agostini.
When the results didn’t come, he faced the brunt of the blame from the organization. He tried to defend himself to the coaching staff, which he believes was interpreted as talking back. He was released from his contract after nine games.
He had to call his parents, who were driving from Scarborough to Florida to visit him.
“Embarrassing,” he said of the lowest point of his hockey career.
He waited for his parents to arrive in Florida, and he “prayed for a miracle.”
After one game with the SPHL’s Macon Mayhem in Georgia, he got another emergency call, this time from the ECHL’s Reading Royals: Could he join the team the following day in Pennsylvania?
No problem, but first, a typical scene from his career would play out: D’Agostini begged the Mayhem’s trainer to open up the arena at midnight so he could grab his gear, then woke up at 4 a.m. to ride a shuttle bus to Atlanta for a 7 a.m. flight to Pittsburgh, where a club booster drove him the four hours to Reading. He arrived a few hours before puck drop.
He started three games in three straight days and won each one.
“My foot,” said D’Agostini, “was back in the door.”
His performance saw him that week named ESPN’s playful best hockey player in the world award. He stayed with the Royals for the remainder of the season.
“He just took every day as positively as he could take it,” said Royals teammate and former roommate Frank Hora.
Again without a contract, he began the 2019-20 season on a PTO with the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers. But two games in, he came down with what he thought was the flu and was released. After an agonizing drive home, he got a call from the Toledo Walleyes minutes after crossing the Canadian border telling him that they’d picked him up.
He went to his parents’ Scarborough home to rest. A trip to the hospital diagnosed him with a debilitating case of pneumonia. But just a few days later, he was back on the road.
“I need to take this job for the sake of … well, I need to,” he remembers thinking.
He would lose his job to another goalie before being traded and then released by Wheeling before being picked up by the Beast. After the sports world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he would wake up in the middle of the night shaking in fear.
“This could be the end of my career,” he remembers thinking.
He channeled that energy into finishing his master’s degree, waking at 5:30 a.m. to research the motives behind athletes who do charity work. His presumption was that professional athletes want to be leaders and that they begin charities to help those around them, and not for good PR.
Throughout, he furthered his own belief that striving for the NHL could set an example for those around him.
The Marlies appreciate how his relentless pursuit of his dreams could help the team. It was Marlies goalie coach, Jon Elkin, who had worked with D’Agostini in goalie schools across the Greater Toronto Area and was aware of his journey, who suggested him to the Marlies.
“It’s an opportunity for young players to recognize that dreams are never over,” Marlies head coach Greg Moore said of D’Agostini. “And if you just stay with the process, and keep pushing and keep working, anything can happen.”

 

[Man Bear Pig]

I often see people talking about bogo needing a rest. He’s only 30. Where does the resting stuff come from? He’s physiologically identical to Muzzin — same age, height, weight — and gets 7 minutes less TOI per game.

Bogosian has been solid but the guy is made of glass and has a long history of injuries. Nobody is wishing it on him, but it seems like only a matter of time before we see him out for a month.

 

[BoredBrandonPridham]

Bogosian has been solid but the guy is made of glass and has a long history of injuries. Nobody is wishing it on him, but it seems like only a matter of time before we see him out for a month.

Yea, obviously if he gets injured he’ll be out. But that’s not a rest. I don’t think we’ll see him sitting out for rest and I’m not sure why that’s a thing I’ve seen said about him a few times this season.

 

[Man Bear Pig]

Yea, obviously if he gets injured he’ll be out. But that’s not a rest. I don’t think we’ll see him sitting out for rest and I’m not sure why that’s a thing I’ve seen said about him a few times this season.

Oh, I dont disagree. Resting the guy won't stop some freak injury. I don't see how resting him makes any sense. For me it's more about anticipating an injury because that's just how it goes with certain players like Bogo.

 

[Apex Predator]

In the NBA they rest their star players all the time. If we can start pushing away in the standings wouldn’t be a bad thing to rest Matthews and company.

 

[The Iceman]

With this crazy schedule players will need rests. We have the spare bodies, great idea to rest BOGO on the backend of a back to back.

I would think Jumbo and Spezza will find themselves sitting out one game in back to backs too.

If the medical team was sitting out a 27 year old Kawhi I am sure it is a good idea for many on the Leafs too.

 

[Magic Man]

With Jack Campbell and Ian Scott out with injuries, the Maple Leafs’ organizational goaltending depth chart is a mess right now. These injuries have impacted the AHL’s Marlies, where goaltender Andrew D’Agostini, playing on a professional tryout contract, has won two of the team’s first four games while posting a .912 save percentage.
They are the only four games he has ever played in the AHL. At 27, D’Agostini is the oldest rookie in the league this season. His career to date has been spent bouncing throughout the CIS, ECHL and SPHL. He concedes that many players his age who had yet to crack the AHL would have given up years earlier.
Yet D’Agostini is unlike many 27-year-olds. Throughout his vagabond journey, he has steadfastly held on to his dream of playing in the NHL. And now he’s closer than he’s ever been before.
“I really don’t know what the future is going to hold,” said D’Agostini. “But I feel like a newfound spark for my hockey career has been created.”
The AHL is typically not a league for 27-year-old rookie goalies. There are 10 goalies older than D’Agostini who have played in the AHL so far this season. Each of them has played multiple seasons in the NHL or AHL.
Since 2012, D’Agostini has dressed for 11 different teams in five different leagues.
“As crazy and out there as it sounds, as long as I’m still passionate about playing hockey, my goal will always be the NHL, no matter what,” he said. “I never saw myself working one of those 9-to-5 jobs. I’ve had such a passion for playing, for reaching my full potential that I just could not let it go.”
In March 2013, during a PTO with the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones while he was up from the Peterborough Petes, his professional career almost ended as quickly as it began. Just 22 seconds after taking over the net in the third period, D’Agostini allowed a goal on his first shot against. When the game ended, the then 19-year-old wondered if his lone foray into professional hockey was destined to be but a footnote in a meaningless game.
“I thought, ‘Well this was fun,’” said D’Agostini. “And that was that.”
But after that game, the Cyclones told him the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals needed a goalie to dress the following night in Chicago. He didn’t suit up for the Admirals, but he did get to stay in a decent hotel. Enough to regale his Petes teammates about it when he flew back to Peterborough the next day.
“A whole different world of hockey,” said D’Agostini.
What stood out during his 24-hour sojourn in Chicago was how well the Admirals welcomed him and made him feel like part of the organization. If an AHL franchise could make an unknown 20-year-old rent-a-goalie feel important, why shouldn’t he believe he could be a professional goalie?
“It only takes leadership out of a few guys to make a huge impact on people,” he explained.
In the summer of 2014, undrafted after five seasons with the Petes, D’Agostini received offers from Canadian university teams. The list of players who move from U Sports to the NHL is a short one.
“It was discouraging for someone who was so hungry to play professional hockey,” said D’Agostini.
He opted to finish his public management degree at the University of Guelph. His only condition for the recruiting staff was that they’d adopt his Saves for CF program, which raises funds for Cystic Fibrosis research. D’Agostini started the program after the mother of a young boy with the disease visited the Petes and shared her family’s story. You can read more on Andrew’s fundraising efforts here.
When he arrived in Guelph in the fall of 2014, he roomed with Cole Hamblin. During the preseason, Hamblin began experiencing back pain and was quickly diagnosed with mucoepidermoid carcinoma, a form of gland cancer. He died that November.
“You could tell he was carrying the load of the death of his roommate,” said University of Guelph men’s hockey coach Shawn Camp. “His clothes were still in his room. His pickup truck was still there. (D’Agostini) helped pack up his stuff. And Dags, just with the character he has, was then our best player in the second half of the season.”
The Gryphons won the bronze medal at the 2015 CIS University Cup Men’s Hockey Championship.
After his two seasons in Guelph, the ECHL’s Brampton Beast called in the spring of 2016 asking him to join them late in their season. He agreed, in the hope of working his way up the ladder. That ladder ended up being far steeper than he imagined.
Despite working part-time jobs, his low pay meant he still could not afford to pay rent. So he spent nights sleeping in his Jeep.
“I just was never ready to give up hockey,” said D’Agostini. “I knew that these are the type of stories that are really inspirational for people who lose hope and faith.”
In his three seasons with the Beast, which ceased operations last week, he endured multiple concussions, dislocated fingers and an ankle injury. His craziest ailment came with the Allen Americans while on a PTO in the 2018-19 preseason when his teeth “exploded” after taking a shot to the face. The pain was so unbearable that he had an emergency root canal the morning of a game.
“I was a little high, and half of my face was numb playing this exhibition game,” said D’Agostini. “I didn’t tell the coach what happened. I just showed up and I thought, ‘This is your opportunity to get back in the loop here.’”
Despite winning that game, he was sent down to the Pensacola Ice Flyers of the Southern Professional Hockey League.
“It’s just another chapter of your story,” he told himself. “Go, and make the most of it.”
“(Teammates) looked at me like I had three eyes when I would go on the ice 45 minutes before practice to work on my skating,” said D’Agostini.
When the results didn’t come, he faced the brunt of the blame from the organization. He tried to defend himself to the coaching staff, which he believes was interpreted as talking back. He was released from his contract after nine games.
He had to call his parents, who were driving from Scarborough to Florida to visit him.
“Embarrassing,” he said of the lowest point of his hockey career.
He waited for his parents to arrive in Florida, and he “prayed for a miracle.”
After one game with the SPHL’s Macon Mayhem in Georgia, he got another emergency call, this time from the ECHL’s Reading Royals: Could he join the team the following day in Pennsylvania?
No problem, but first, a typical scene from his career would play out: D’Agostini begged the Mayhem’s trainer to open up the arena at midnight so he could grab his gear, then woke up at 4 a.m. to ride a shuttle bus to Atlanta for a 7 a.m. flight to Pittsburgh, where a club booster drove him the four hours to Reading. He arrived a few hours before puck drop.
He started three games in three straight days and won each one.
“My foot,” said D’Agostini, “was back in the door.”
His performance saw him that week named ESPN’s playful best hockey player in the world award. He stayed with the Royals for the remainder of the season.
“He just took every day as positively as he could take it,” said Royals teammate and former roommate Frank Hora.
Again without a contract, he began the 2019-20 season on a PTO with the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers. But two games in, he came down with what he thought was the flu and was released. After an agonizing drive home, he got a call from the Toledo Walleyes minutes after crossing the Canadian border telling him that they’d picked him up.
He went to his parents’ Scarborough home to rest. A trip to the hospital diagnosed him with a debilitating case of pneumonia. But just a few days later, he was back on the road.
“I need to take this job for the sake of … well, I need to,” he remembers thinking.
He would lose his job to another goalie before being traded and then released by Wheeling before being picked up by the Beast. After the sports world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he would wake up in the middle of the night shaking in fear.
“This could be the end of my career,” he remembers thinking.
He channeled that energy into finishing his master’s degree, waking at 5:30 a.m. to research the motives behind athletes who do charity work. His presumption was that professional athletes want to be leaders and that they begin charities to help those around them, and not for good PR.
Throughout, he furthered his own belief that striving for the NHL could set an example for those around him.
The Marlies appreciate how his relentless pursuit of his dreams could help the team. It was Marlies goalie coach, Jon Elkin, who had worked with D’Agostini in goalie schools across the Greater Toronto Area and was aware of his journey, who suggested him to the Marlies.
“It’s an opportunity for young players to recognize that dreams are never over,” Marlies head coach Greg Moore said of D’Agostini. “And if you just stay with the process, and keep pushing and keep working, anything can happen.”

Cool life story. I'm rooting for him.

 

[Orfieus]

How was yesterday's game. totally forgot about it

 

[BM14]

Oh, I dont disagree. Resting the guy won't stop some freak injury. I don't see how resting him makes any sense. For me it's more about anticipating an injury because that's just how it goes with certain players like Bogo.

BogoCop very much suffers from mental fatigue. You can see his bad plays increasing.

 

[Morgs]

I often see people talking about bogo needing a rest. He’s only 30. Where does the resting stuff come from? He’s physiologically identical to Muzzin — same age, height, weight — and gets 7 minutes less TOI per game.

Hoping the rest is more of a "we need you vs good PP teams but against bad teams like Ottawa..... you can sit".

 

[stickty111]

Hallander with a goal and assist today

 

[Kiwi]

Hallander with a goal and assist today

Nice, those late 2nds in Hallander and Hirvonen (one drafted by us the other traded for) are having solid seasons

Those are the guys we need to hit on when we're trading the Kapanen Johnsson types because of cap concerns

Multiple ready prospects and smart UFA signings would keep us competitive for years

 

[Morgs]

Hallander with a goal and assist today

He's NHL ready.

He'll probably start next year in the AHL, but I think he could make an impact in the top-9 right now.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

He's NHL ready.

He'll probably start next year in the AHL, but I think he could make an impact in the top-9 right now.

He needs at least a year or two in the AHL. Most guys who jump straight from the SHL to the NHL and have any kind of major impact are PPG players. Hallander is not even 0.5 PPG at this point.

I think he can make the NHL at some point, but right now he needs a couple of years of AHL seasoning before he is NHL ready. We don't really need to rush the guy so might as well give him the time to develop properly.

 

[hullsy47]

Nice, those late 2nds in Hallander and Hirvonen (one drafted by us the other traded for) are having solid seasons

Those are the guys we need to hit on when we're trading the Kapanen Johnsson types because of cap concerns

Multiple ready prospects and smart UFA signings would keep us competitive for years

We haven't
Missed kappa or Johnson 1 bit
If they want to come back as free agents they ll be paid what they are worth

 

[Teeder Keon]

With Jack Campbell and Ian Scott out with injuries, the Maple Leafs’ organizational goaltending depth chart is a mess right now. These injuries have impacted the AHL’s Marlies, where goaltender Andrew D’Agostini, playing on a professional tryout contract, has won two of the team’s first four games while posting a .912 save percentage.
They are the only four games he has ever played in the AHL. At 27, D’Agostini is the oldest rookie in the league this season. His career to date has been spent bouncing throughout the CIS, ECHL and SPHL. He concedes that many players his age who had yet to crack the AHL would have given up years earlier.
Yet D’Agostini is unlike many 27-year-olds. Throughout his vagabond journey, he has steadfastly held on to his dream of playing in the NHL. And now he’s closer than he’s ever been before.
“I really don’t know what the future is going to hold,” said D’Agostini. “But I feel like a newfound spark for my hockey career has been created.”
The AHL is typically not a league for 27-year-old rookie goalies. There are 10 goalies older than D’Agostini who have played in the AHL so far this season. Each of them has played multiple seasons in the NHL or AHL.
Since 2012, D’Agostini has dressed for 11 different teams in five different leagues.
“As crazy and out there as it sounds, as long as I’m still passionate about playing hockey, my goal will always be the NHL, no matter what,” he said. “I never saw myself working one of those 9-to-5 jobs. I’ve had such a passion for playing, for reaching my full potential that I just could not let it go.”
In March 2013, during a PTO with the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones while he was up from the Peterborough Petes, his professional career almost ended as quickly as it began. Just 22 seconds after taking over the net in the third period, D’Agostini allowed a goal on his first shot against. When the game ended, the then 19-year-old wondered if his lone foray into professional hockey was destined to be but a footnote in a meaningless game.
“I thought, ‘Well this was fun,’” said D’Agostini. “And that was that.”
But after that game, the Cyclones told him the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals needed a goalie to dress the following night in Chicago. He didn’t suit up for the Admirals, but he did get to stay in a decent hotel. Enough to regale his Petes teammates about it when he flew back to Peterborough the next day.
“A whole different world of hockey,” said D’Agostini.
What stood out during his 24-hour sojourn in Chicago was how well the Admirals welcomed him and made him feel like part of the organization. If an AHL franchise could make an unknown 20-year-old rent-a-goalie feel important, why shouldn’t he believe he could be a professional goalie?
“It only takes leadership out of a few guys to make a huge impact on people,” he explained.
In the summer of 2014, undrafted after five seasons with the Petes, D’Agostini received offers from Canadian university teams. The list of players who move from U Sports to the NHL is a short one.
“It was discouraging for someone who was so hungry to play professional hockey,” said D’Agostini.
He opted to finish his public management degree at the University of Guelph. His only condition for the recruiting staff was that they’d adopt his Saves for CF program, which raises funds for Cystic Fibrosis research. D’Agostini started the program after the mother of a young boy with the disease visited the Petes and shared her family’s story. You can read more on Andrew’s fundraising efforts here.
When he arrived in Guelph in the fall of 2014, he roomed with Cole Hamblin. During the preseason, Hamblin began experiencing back pain and was quickly diagnosed with mucoepidermoid carcinoma, a form of gland cancer. He died that November.
“You could tell he was carrying the load of the death of his roommate,” said University of Guelph men’s hockey coach Shawn Camp. “His clothes were still in his room. His pickup truck was still there. (D’Agostini) helped pack up his stuff. And Dags, just with the character he has, was then our best player in the second half of the season.”
The Gryphons won the bronze medal at the 2015 CIS University Cup Men’s Hockey Championship.
After his two seasons in Guelph, the ECHL’s Brampton Beast called in the spring of 2016 asking him to join them late in their season. He agreed, in the hope of working his way up the ladder. That ladder ended up being far steeper than he imagined.
Despite working part-time jobs, his low pay meant he still could not afford to pay rent. So he spent nights sleeping in his Jeep.
“I just was never ready to give up hockey,” said D’Agostini. “I knew that these are the type of stories that are really inspirational for people who lose hope and faith.”
In his three seasons with the Beast, which ceased operations last week, he endured multiple concussions, dislocated fingers and an ankle injury. His craziest ailment came with the Allen Americans while on a PTO in the 2018-19 preseason when his teeth “exploded” after taking a shot to the face. The pain was so unbearable that he had an emergency root canal the morning of a game.
“I was a little high, and half of my face was numb playing this exhibition game,” said D’Agostini. “I didn’t tell the coach what happened. I just showed up and I thought, ‘This is your opportunity to get back in the loop here.’”
Despite winning that game, he was sent down to the Pensacola Ice Flyers of the Southern Professional Hockey League.
“It’s just another chapter of your story,” he told himself. “Go, and make the most of it.”
“(Teammates) looked at me like I had three eyes when I would go on the ice 45 minutes before practice to work on my skating,” said D’Agostini.
When the results didn’t come, he faced the brunt of the blame from the organization. He tried to defend himself to the coaching staff, which he believes was interpreted as talking back. He was released from his contract after nine games.
He had to call his parents, who were driving from Scarborough to Florida to visit him.
“Embarrassing,” he said of the lowest point of his hockey career.
He waited for his parents to arrive in Florida, and he “prayed for a miracle.”
After one game with the SPHL’s Macon Mayhem in Georgia, he got another emergency call, this time from the ECHL’s Reading Royals: Could he join the team the following day in Pennsylvania?
No problem, but first, a typical scene from his career would play out: D’Agostini begged the Mayhem’s trainer to open up the arena at midnight so he could grab his gear, then woke up at 4 a.m. to ride a shuttle bus to Atlanta for a 7 a.m. flight to Pittsburgh, where a club booster drove him the four hours to Reading. He arrived a few hours before puck drop.
He started three games in three straight days and won each one.
“My foot,” said D’Agostini, “was back in the door.”
His performance saw him that week named ESPN’s playful best hockey player in the world award. He stayed with the Royals for the remainder of the season.
“He just took every day as positively as he could take it,” said Royals teammate and former roommate Frank Hora.
Again without a contract, he began the 2019-20 season on a PTO with the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers. But two games in, he came down with what he thought was the flu and was released. After an agonizing drive home, he got a call from the Toledo Walleyes minutes after crossing the Canadian border telling him that they’d picked him up.
He went to his parents’ Scarborough home to rest. A trip to the hospital diagnosed him with a debilitating case of pneumonia. But just a few days later, he was back on the road.
“I need to take this job for the sake of … well, I need to,” he remembers thinking.
He would lose his job to another goalie before being traded and then released by Wheeling before being picked up by the Beast. After the sports world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he would wake up in the middle of the night shaking in fear.
“This could be the end of my career,” he remembers thinking.
He channeled that energy into finishing his master’s degree, waking at 5:30 a.m. to research the motives behind athletes who do charity work. His presumption was that professional athletes want to be leaders and that they begin charities to help those around them, and not for good PR.
Throughout, he furthered his own belief that striving for the NHL could set an example for those around him.
The Marlies appreciate how his relentless pursuit of his dreams could help the team. It was Marlies goalie coach, Jon Elkin, who had worked with D’Agostini in goalie schools across the Greater Toronto Area and was aware of his journey, who suggested him to the Marlies.
“It’s an opportunity for young players to recognize that dreams are never over,” Marlies head coach Greg Moore said of D’Agostini. “And if you just stay with the process, and keep pushing and keep working, anything can happen.”

Wow , great work and commitment to information , I tip my hat to you sir

 

[Teeder Keon]

We haven't
Missed kappa or Johnson 1 bit
If they want to come back as free agents they ll be paid what they are worth

We better Get used interchanging some of our younger assets and replacing them as this is what dumb ass Caps subject teams to do
Scouting scouting scouting and drafts and older players pickups and great Cap scientists are essential to a team

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

Robertson's elite goal scoring at the OHL level wasn't just from his elite shot, but his ability to get an insane volume of shots off. His start with the Marlies shows he's still going to be able to do that against men. He's not just good at getting open, he looks very capable of making plays when he has limited time and space

 

[Leafs1991]

Yes, let’s thank our lucky stars Liljegren managed to actually improve by training on his own in Sweden during an 11+ month layoff.

Now imagine if he had spent that time training and playing with a top level pro team. He might’ve even made the NHL out of camp.

Always finding a negative eh. You clearly don't know much about development. Prospects are given personal programs from coaches, actual workouts for them to do. All he had to do was go execute them in Sweden.

 

[Thornbury]

Hallander with a goal and assist today

It would be great if he could fill our 3rd line centre role next year, and move out / lose Kerfoot in the expansion draft.

 

[LeafChief]

It would be great if he could fill our 3rd line centre role next year, and move out / lose Kerfoot in the expansion draft.

I'd say Hallander is probably at least 1 more season and probably 2 more seasons away from being NHL ready. He's a guy that should definitely get AHL time.