If the Air Canada Centre is the showroom of professional sports and entertainment in Toronto, Ricoh Coliseum could be called the engine room.



For a little more than a decade, that engine room continues to churn out sparkling gems in the form of the Toronto Marlies, the preeminent club in the American Hockey League.



In 2005, the Toronto Maple Leafs made the difficult decision to relocate from St. John’s, Nfld., which had been home to the team’s AHL affiliate since 1991. It was a painstaking process because the St. John’s Maple Leafs had enjoyed outstanding support all around Newfoundland (it continues to be one of the AHL’s best markets). But a need for smoother logistics and the new salary-cap era in the NHL meant the Leafs wanted their development team closer to the big club.



The Marlies era in Toronto began on Oct. 12, 2005, when more than 8,000 fans witnessed a 5-2 Marlies victory over the Syracuse Crunch. Head coach Paul Maurice had already been behind the bench for 674 NHL games at that point in his coaching career but he still confessed to being nervous before the game. Maurice’s nerves were calmed by the performance of Jean Sebastien-Aubin, the veteran goaltender who was the Marlies’ No. 1 netminder that year. Later that season, Aubin was called up to the Leafs, going 9-0-2 in the process, as the club fell just short of clinching a playoff berth.



Aubin’s call-up was probably the first major case of the Marlies having an immediate and direct influence on the Leafs lineup over the past decade, in both big and small ways.

Tyler Bozak split his rookie professional season between the Marlies and the Leafs in 2009-10. As expected, Bozak’s time with the Marlies was rather short. But his teammate that year — James Reimer — was in his first full season as an AHL goaltender and largely an unknown quantity. Within a year, he was the Leafs’ starter.

Players who earn a Leafs call-up have their names etched in the ring of honour that adorns Ricoh, a testament to the player development incumbent on every AHL club.

A team’s success is also judged, more conventionally, on its wins. On that score, the Marlies have always fared well. The high point came four years ago when the team won the Western Conference title, losing just twice in their three series victories. The loss in the Calder Cup final to the Norfolk Admirals was the first of three straight post-seasons where the Marlies would fall to the eventual AHL champions.

Though last year’s run ended in the opening round of the playoffs, the Marlies late-season push to get into the playoffs gave the team 40 wins, the fourth consecutive season it has reached that plateau. The club record for wins is 50, which came in 2007-08, a year vital in the maturation of future Leafs John Mitchell and Anton Stralman, who both remain active NHLers.

This season represents a new dawn with the arrival of William Nylander for his first full season in a Marlies sweater (he played 37 games in 2014-15). Nylander was recently cited as the top NHL-affiliated prospect by TSN analyst Craig Button. After a decade of excitement, the Marlies’ future still looks bright.