“The worst thing ever you could ever see in the summer or leading up to the season – so for [Tim] Brent, [Mike] Zigomanis, [Ryan] Hamilton, [Darryl] Boyce, [Alex] Foster – you see your name already being mentioned as a Marlie,” Said the Marlies bench boss. “Sometimes it’s a little disheartening.”

The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed Ryan Hamilton to a one-year, two-way contract worth $500,000 at the NHL level, or an AHL salary of $105,000. The Whitby, Ontario native came to the Marlies during the 2008/2009 after being traded from the Wild’s AHL affiliate, Houston.

If the 09/10 AHL season was NASCAR’s Daytona 500, the Toronto Marlies would be the car that started off strong, lead the pack for a short while and then blew a tire.  The same car that while on the 95th lap kissed the wall and spun into the infield. And if that wasn’t enough, the rear rotor seized around lap 140 creating quite the gap from the [...]