This past week, Ryan Clowe, the head coach of a brand new ECHL team, the Newfoundland Growlers, made his first official appearance in St. John’s. About a week earlier, he was wearing a blue and white tracksuit as a coach at the Toronto Maple Leafs’ development camp, where he was scouting some of the players he would be coaching. Clowe is a Maple Leafs employee, hired specifically to develop players at the AA level of pro hockey.
The Maple Leafs organization had a healthy relationship with their previous ECHL affiliate, the Orlando Solar Bears, but now appear to be taking a much more direct involvement with the Growlers.