Toronto Maple Leafs: Leafs to Host Rookie Tournament
The Toronto Maple Leafs will host the 2017 Rookie Tournament.
It was announced Wednesday that the Toronto Maple Leafs will host the 2017 Rookie Tournament at Ricoh Coliseum, home of the Toronto Marlies.
Technically, Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) is hosting as well, but for the sake of making things easy, it’s the Leafs.
Cool.
The event will take place from September 8-10 and tickets go on sale May 30, 2017.
Any NHL event in Toronto is sure to one of great success, so maybe getting tickets is worthwhile.
I’d get a pair if I didn’t live in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Sad.
Okay, but what exactly is the Rookie Tournament?
Let me explain.
Rookie Tournament
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The tournament in years past has been hosted in London, Ontario.
Four years in a row to be exact.
However, this year it’ll be in Toronto like I mentioned earlier.
It will include Atlantic Division rivals, the Ottawa Senators, Montréal Canadiens, as well as yours truly, the Leafs.
The top prospects will represent each team in a battle to the death.
Dah, dah, dah.
Just kidding about the death part, but it will be entertaining.
Obviously, I’m biased when I say that the Leafs have the better prospect team out of the three, but I think the statement carries some weight.
Nonetheless, it should be a fun tournament and a little prelude to the start of the NHL regular season in October.
By the time this gets going, we’ll all be dying to see the blue and white on the ice again anyways.
Fun fact, two current Leafs players that have played previously in the tournament are Morgan Rielly and Nazem Kadri.
The NHL has said that the rosters for the teams will be released at a later date and I’d imagine it will be much closer to the start of the festivities.
Schedule
Here’s a look at the schedule as each team will play two games, one for each opponent.
| DATE | TIME | EVENT | TEAM(S) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friday, September 8 | 7 p.m. | Game 1 | Montreal vs. Toronto |
| Saturday, September 9 | 7 p.m. | Game 2 | Ottawa vs. Montreal |
| Sunday, September 10 | 4 p.m. | Game 3 | Toronto vs. Ottawa |
I’m actually more excited for the Toronto v. Ottawa game than the Montreal v. Toronto one because of how the 2016-17 went down and is still going down for the Senators.
They’ve proven that the Battle of Ontario is still a thing and the Leafs will need to take them down a peg, starting with a win in this tournament.
For more information, head on over to this article released by NHL on the event as most of the information above was a restoration of it.