Kyle Dubas faces a number of challenges as the Maple Leafs' newly installed general manager, but before attempting to mold the club into a Stanley Cup contender, the 32-year-old may bring the city of Toronto its first professional hockey championship in 51 years.

The Toronto Marlies continued their dominance of the American Hockey League in the playoffs after a league-best 112-point regular season. The team posted an 11-2 record (including four-game sweeps of the Syracuse Crunch and Lehigh Valley Phantoms) to reach the Calder Cup Final against the Texas Stars.

Due to the unbalanced schedule the AHL uses between conferences, the series beginning on Saturday will be the first time the two conference champions face each other this season.

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“It’s a bit of a novelty, but that’s the American League,” Marlies head coach Sheldon Keefe said earlier this week. “You focus all year long on your conference, the teams that you play every day. I’d be lying if I said I spent any time looking at, thinking about what’s happening on the other side.”

Unlike previous years, when the Marlies were a collection of AHL veterans with a few youngsters sprinkled in, the last four years under Dubas and Keefe have put more emphasis on player development and unearthing talent for the Leafs, while also maintaining the club’s ability to win consistently.

In 2016, the Marlies reached the Eastern Conference finals with future Leafs William Nylander, Connor Brown, Kasperi Kapanen, Zach Hyman, Josh Leivo and Connor Carrick as key contributors. The group’s success proved to be a springboard, as they went from the NHL’s worst record to making the playoffs 12 months later.

That trend continued this season, as rookies Kapanen, Travis Dermott and Andreas Johnsson were promoted and made key contributions with the Leafs in the second half, but other young pros Dmytro Timashov, Adam Brooks, Mason Marchment, Pierre Engvall, Carl Grundstrom and Jeremy Bracco picked up the offensive slack.

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After the Boston Bruins eliminated Toronto last month, Dermott and Johnsson rejoined the Marlies just in time for the deciding game of their first-round series against Utica. Since then, the club has rattled off nine straight wins. Johnsson is second in AHL playoff scoring with 15 points (6G, 9A) in that span and leads in average points per game (1.67). Along with Miro Aaltonen and Carl Grundstrom, the Marlies' top line has 35 points in the postseason.

Along with the balanced scoring throughout the lineup, the Marlies' playoff success can be deduced to the stellar goaltending of Garret Sparks and Calvin Pickard.

Sparks won the Baz Bastien Award (the AHL’s equivalent to the Vezina Trophy) this season and has a microscopic 1.96 GAA in the playoffs, which has catapulted the 24-year-old into consideration for the Leafs' backup job next season or a potential trade commodity this summer.

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Toronto enters the Final as a confident group, not only because of the ascension of Dubas to the Leafs' top job, but with Keefe being on the radar for NHL head coaching positions and the potential for as many as a half-dozen players graduating to the NHL at some point next season.

“We’re doing a lot of good things as a team ourselves and we want to make sure that we’re continuing to do that.” Keefe said. “We want to be sharp, we want to make sure we’re getting our own work in and that we’re prepared to play our game. As much as we’ll get reports in and watch video, we’re not going to get a true feel for our opposition until the puck drops and we can see them face-to-face within the battle. We’re going to want to make sure that our team is as prepared as we can be.”