With the AHL season delayed until at least May and the likelihood of no completion to the season, I reached out to Twitter for some writing ideas on the Marlies and so this venture was born.

If you enjoy this first part of a series (which I have no idea how long it’ll run for) and have some suggestions for players you’d like me to write about, please get in touch.

Without further ado, let’s get cracking…………

Jerry D’Amigo was predominantly known for three things during his time with the Toronto Marlies.

1. A tremendous beard that spawned the hashtag #FearDaBeard during the 2012 playoffs.
2. Being the king of empty-net goals.
3. Tormenting the Rochester Americans in post-season play.

Drafted 158th by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2009, D’Amigo was a product of the U.S junior system before moving to Canada in 2010 to begin his professional career.

Despite accruing fifteen points in 43 games at the AHL level as a rookie, the Toronto organisation exercised the option to send him to junior just before the trade deadline.
The winger was reassigned to the Kitchener Rangers who owned his major junior player rights and he promptly put up twenty-eight points (12-16-28) in 21 OHL games.

The NY native was never a hugely productive player during the regular season (0.49 points per game with Marlies) but did own a great knack for timely goals (eleven of his 57 goals were game-winners) and was a tremendous penalty killer.

D’Amigo made his NHL debut on December 5, 2013, as the Maple Leafs defeated the Dallas Stars 3-2.
He had to wait until his sixth NHL outing against Chicago later that month to register his first point.
A two-point haul included a first goal scored against Antti Raanta.

With his NHL career amounting to only 31 games in total, it was during post-season play with the Marlies that D’Amigo made himself a fan-favourite.

In 2012, Toronto reached the Calder Cup final for the first time in franchise history and thus began a two-year dominance of the Rochester American in the playoffs.

The 29-year-old recorded six points including five goals and two game-winners as Toronto swept the Amerks 3-0 in the first round.
He finished third in team scoring behind Matt Frattin and Philippe Dupuis with thirteen points in 17 games but Toronto would ultimately fall short to a juggernaut Norfolk Admirals team in the final.

D’Amigo would torture Rochester again in 2013 by helping himself to five points (1-4-5) as Toronto swept their cross-border rivals 3-0 for a second straight year.
It was a shorter playoff run however despite the winger’s point per game pace through nine outings (1-8-9) as Toronto fell in the second round to the eventual Calder Cup champions, Grand Rapids Griffins.

The 2013-14 season proved to be his last in Toronto but D’Amigo would make it a memorable hurrah.

A twenty-goal haul through the regular season was followed by yet more post-season heroics.
There was no Rochester to terrorise this time around but the American forward began the playoffs with a seven-game point streak (4-8-12) as he tormented the Milwaukee Admirals and Chicago Wolves, as the Marlies swept their way through to the conference finals.

Toronto would lose to Texas in a tense seven-game conference final and the Stars would go on to lift the Calder Cup.

On July 1, 2015, Toronto traded D’Amigo to the Columbus Blue Jackets (and a seventh-round pick in 2015) for Matt Frattin.

Columbus signed the RFA to a one-year contract later that same month but after just 28 games in the AHL with Springfield Falcons (Blue Jackets affiliate at the time), D’Amigo was traded to the Buffalo Sabres.
There were certainly better opportunities for D’Amigo in Buffalo and he suited up for nine games in the NHL along with 31 appearances in the AHL with the Rochester Americans as poacher turned gamekeeper.

Buffalo extended him for one last season but the Binghamton native would exclusively spend the season in Rochester and that proved the beginning of the end for him in North America.

D’Amigo would spend the 2016-17 and 2017-18 campaigns in Finland playing for Ilves and Kalpa in Liiga before departing for pastures new again in 2018.

ERC Ingolstadt in Germany’s top league Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) has been the American’s residence for the past two seasons.
Ingolstadt is a city in Bavaria on the banks of the Danube River and the Panthers home is the Saturn Arena which holds around 4,800 patrons.

Germany was certainly to his liking during the first season as D’Amigo finished second in team scoring with 43 points (18-25-43) in 52 games. He also set a club record with three short-handed goals.

 

The most recent campaign was cut short by a leg injury even before the season was curtailed by the Corona Virus pandemic.

 

D’Amigo remains the Toronto Marlies ‘All-Time Playoff Points Leader’ with 36 points in forty games and his success in that department allied with his likeable personality, means he shall forever remain a player looked upon with fond memories by Marlies’ fans.