Patrick WilliamsTheAHL.com Features Writer
Not even two weeks removed from their confetti-drenched celebration, work has not stopped for the Toronto Marlies’ general manager. Ryan Hardy and the entire management team behind the 2026 Calder Cup champions.
Hardy, who joined the organization in 2021 following a successful stint with the Chicago Steel of the United States Hockey League, is joined by Mike Dixondirector of minor league operations and assistant general manager of the Marlies since 2017.
The Maple Leafs have a large player development staff. Longtime NHL defenseman Mark Giordano is with the Marlies as a coaching consultant, taking on a larger role after the Marlies assistant coach. Steve Sullivan was added to the Leafs coaching staff in December. Goal coach Hannu Toivonen managed a surprising duo of Artur Akhtyamov again Dennis Hildeby. It was Akhtyamov who took over the team’s starting job early in the season en route to winning the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the most valuable player of the Calder Cup Playoffs.
Success means opportunities from elsewhere. Every team wants winners, and the Marlies are winners. Assistant coach Michael Dyck was hired last week as head coach and general manager of the WHL’s Vancouver Giants. And more moves are possible when free agency opens on Wednesday. The decisions rest on the organization’s restricted and unrestricted free agents. Potential AHL contracts, something the organization has long used heavily, should be sorted out.
But even the to-do list doesn’t stop you from slowing down a bit to enjoy the victory and, perhaps more importantly, to honor the many people who put these players in a position to win the Calder Cup.
Hardy, Dixon, head coach John Gruden and every team that helped guide the Marlies in one way or another are important people at Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. But MLSE is very good. Its holdings beyond the Leafs and Marlies include – but are not limited to – the NBA’s Toronto Raptors, MLS club Toronto FC, stadiums, facilities, restaurants and real estate.
It can be easy for players, coaches, office workers and others to get lost in such a big business. From construction operations to marketing to ticketing and every other area of the AHL’s front office, it takes a well-run job to support a team. The front office scrambled to make sure the Marlies packed three houses at the Coca-Cola Coliseum in mid-June — when FIFA effectively took over Exhibition Place, home to the Marlies’ rink and neighboring BMO Field. They have two bus drivers to handle the group’s transportation needs. Play host Todd Crocker and media relations coordinator Kate Bascom accompany the Marlies each season around the AHL map.
It goes on every time a competitive job is built, whether that’s something on the ice, selling tickets, working with community partners or driving a night bus.
Hardy wanted to make it known that the Calder Cup tournament also went down to try to get off the ice.
“When I got here five years ago, I had different ways of doing things,” Hardy said at the Marlies’ championship celebration last week. “But what was important to me was inside this corporate behemoth, I wanted to run a mom and pop store. And I wanted families to care, and I wanted people to care. The employees I’ve worked with for the past five years are amazing. [They] get the Marlies going every day.”
Hardy’s praise extended to other key players and families. He remembered ahead Brandon Baddockyour wife, Hannahhosting a baby shower at the beginning of the season.
“When you win, everybody matters,” Hardy continued. “It’s important to make everyone care.”
Building those kinds of personal connections at this level doesn’t come easy. Players compete for roster spots, ice time and NHL recall. Roster changes mean that a bunch of players – and the people who come with those players – appear in the fall, often as strangers. Baddock’s career has included him in five AHL stops. He chose to re-sign with the Marlies last summer despite the limited playing time. As it turned out, he played 20 regular season games and did not dress in the postseason. But teamwork first at Baddocks helped the Marlies come together as a team.
“This journey was a journey of the soul, to find a level of love and to find greatness in a group of people below, a group of forgotten boys, a group of boys who are not respected at times, and seeing the good in them, and then building an ecosystem and families where everyone is important and where the hockey team is more important than any person,” said Hardy.
“That’s what we wanted to do, and that’s what we did.”
In the American Hockey League for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams and currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor to SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for the league’s top scorer in 2016.
