by Barry Stagg
December 1995
The St. John's Maple Leafs have been setting a blistering pace in the American Hockey League. In fact the St. John's team has gone eleven games without a loss and they are so hot that extra refrigeration equipment has been brought into Memorial Stadium to keep the ice surface in place while the sizzling sextet is on game patrol.
The Leafs have a young team with numerous NHL prospects. The team also has the benefit of veteran head coach Tom Watt who is a former Toronto head coach. Assistant coach is the inspirational Mike Foligno who had moments of flamboyant glory with Toronto after a long career spent mostly with the Buffalo Sabres.
The farm team is developing in typical Cliff Fletcher fashion. Fletcher, in his long tenure in Calgary, developed a fine farm system with an uncanny ability to find prospects out of the normally barren realms of junior hockey free agents and low level draft picks. Such has been the case with Leaf prospect Mark Kolesar who went undrafted and was signed by the Leafs as a free agent after a career as essentially a third liner in the Western Junior Hockey League. Kolesar scored eleven goals in only twelve games with the St. John's squad before promotion to Toronto. His development as an NHL prospect was definitely a long shot and is attributed to the overall strength of the teaching staff of the Leaf organization.
An unexpected bonus has been the vigorous offensive output of winger/centre Kent Manderville. Manderville has nine goals and nine assists in just fifteen games after appearing to be washed up as an NHL prospect after a dismal 1994-1995 season in Toronto. With his speed and size and a rekindled ability to score, he may soon find himself back in Toronto playing regularly on one of the Leaf's top lines.
The St. John's offense is led by former American college player Kelly Fairchild who was picked up from the Los Angeles Kings in a trade that saw Yanic Perreault find his way out to Gretzkyland. Fairchild comes to the Leaf organization with the added maturity that a career in college hockey brings and his elevation to the Leafs later in the season is a distinct possibility.
The St. John's team made a turnaround two seasons ago, going from a team staffed primarily with minor league veterans to one where young junior prospects were filling out the roster. Last year was a transitional year with some of the young prospects still trying to adapt to the tougher professional game. However this year, the team has already provided help to the Toronto squad. Kolesar and fellow winger Todd Warriner have already played at Maple Leaf Gardens and goaltender Marcel Cousineau was the backup to Felix Potvin for several games.
Another extremely pleasant surprise in St. John's has been the offensive development of enforcer Ken Belanger. Belanger is playing on the top line with Kelly Fairchild and he is showing signs of offensive talent to go with his already formidable pugilistic prowess. With continued development, Belanger may find himself playing in the NHL and rapidly earning a reputation as that most rare of finds, that being a fighter who can actually score.
This is an important year for the only professional sport's team in Newfoundland. It is vital that the team continue its love affair with Newfoundland hockey fans in order to overcome any opposition to the squad's continued tenure in the province. The dreadful spectre of more labour strikes and the inevitable lockouts and picketing was raised again before the start of the season. The response of the hockey executives who run the team was to speculate ominously about moving out for good if a strike disrupted the season. This lingering problem is coupled with the need to have a strong fan base to serve as a political foundation for the construction of a new rink for the team. Frenzied fan enthusiasm is a wonderful elixir that can cure even the most sullen labour agitator or political grandstander.
One of the immediate tasks of the St. John's squad is to transmit its success ratio to the parent squad in Toronto. While St. John's has been flying through the schedule, Toronto has floundered and has just begun to rise above the .500 level. One thing is certain, the players in Toronto cannot rest easy knowing that young, surging hockey talent is developing inside the ancient timbers of Memorial Stadium.
Until next month be proud, be prosperous.