Toronto Marlies Introduce 'Player of the Game' Championship Belt Following Maple Leafs' Lead
The Marlies opened up with a pair of victories where the new winning tradition was unveiled.
The Toronto Marlies opened up their 2024-25 regular season with a pair of victories against the San Diego Gulls over the weekend.
Following the Marlies;' 4-3 win against the Gulls in the first game on Saturday afternoon, Marlies forward Jacob Quillan was presented with the club's first player of the game championship belt. In addition to the puck for his first AHL goal.
The belt, much like the one with the Toronto Maple Leafs have, is awarded to the player of the game following a victory and is awarded by the player who previously held it.
On Sunday, Russian goaltending prospect Artur Akhtyamov made 37 saves on 38 shots to become the second titleholder following a 4-1 win against the Gulls.
The Marlies are following a tradition similar to the Maple Leafs by providing a belt to the players of the game. The tradition with the Maple Leafs began at the beginning of the 2022-23 season when Morgan Rielly attended a WWE event at Scotiabank Arena during the summer and was presented with a Maple Leafs belt by WWE wrestler Edge (Now Adam Copeland of AEW).
Last year, the Marlies used a football helmet as their 'Player of the Game' award.
There were some questions about whether or not the Maple Leafs were going to continue the tradition of the belt this season when the club's social team didn't share anything when Dennis Hildeby helped backstop the club to their first win of the season in a 4-2 victory against the New Jersey Devils. But those concerns were quickly dashed when they teased the belt after their 4-2
Shortly after that, the club showed a clip of Hildeby passing the belt to fellow goaltender.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5RKguDhhHs[/embed]
The Marlies getting off to a 2-0-0-0 start to the season is a positive development, considering how disappointing the club's season was in 2023-24. The club had to deal with the sudden ceasing of operations to their ECHL affiliate, the Newfoundland Growlers. They also lost their best-of-three first-round playoff series against the Belleville Senators.
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