The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed Semyon Der-Arguchintsev to an entry-level contract.
On Friday evening, the Toronto Maple Leafs public relations twitter handle, @LeafsPR announced that the team had signed Der-Arguchintsev.
This summer was a busy one for Kyle Dubas. He landed the biggest fish in the pond by reeling in John Tavares, but he also went fishing in the prospect pool. Dubas was able to grab several talented prospects in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft including Der-Arguchintsev. He was taken in the third round with pick 76.
Der-Arguchintsev or SDA, as he is commonly referred to by Toronto Maple Leafs fans, has had an outstanding rookie camp preseason with the club. While he wasn’t able to register a point in his one preseason game, he’s shown a ton of promise. He isn’t afraid to control the puck and make strategic passes at the NHL level. You would expect most 18 year olds to be very timid as they step on the ice surface of an NHL ice surface, but that’s not case with Moscow, Russia native, SDA.
Even though he’s not ready to play with the Toronto Maple Leafs, he has shown a tremendous amount of promise. He’ll likely be sent back to the OHL’s Peterborough Petes, who own his Canadian Hockey League rights. While he’s not NHL ready, there shouldn’t have been any expectations that he would be ready to play. He’ll need some time in the OHL to develop and become a stronger and mature centreman.
SDA Hard At Work
On Friday evening, SDA and the Toronto Maple Leafs took on the Buffalo Sabres at the Scotiabank Arena in downtown Toronto.
In his preseason debut with the Toronto Maple Leafs, he didn’t play that much. Mike Babcock gave him approximately 11 minutes of ice-time. SDA did make the most of his 11 minutes of play. He showed tremendous maturity, speed, defensive awareness and puck handling.
In the below GIF from @junotheleafs, you’ll see SDA exit the defensive zone with the puck. When he’s gets to the Buffalo Sabres’ blue-line, he then delivers as pass to Chris Mueller. Once he crosses the blue line, Mueller hands the puck back to him. SDA then shows off his speed and carries the puck into the offensive zone before firing a shot on Sabres’ goaltender, Linus Ullmark.
As the game went on, SDA showed that not only was he fabulous in zone entries/exits, puck handling and passing but that he can prove to be vital in the defensive zone. In another GIF from @junotheleafs, you’ll see SDA put some pressure on Sabres’ forward, Zemgus Girgensons. SDA was hungry for the puck and pushed Girgensons up on the board to try to take possession of the puck.
After watching SDA in action at the Scotiabank Arena, Toronto Maple Leafs can see that the future is bright for the 18 year old. He isn’t afraid of playing among several NHLers and has a tremendous skill-set.
With some more time in the OHL with Peterborough, he’ll continue to grow and develop into a strong centreman. I very much look forward to the day that SDA makes his regular season debut with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He’s shown to be a solid prospect and could potentially have a long career in the NHL. It’ll be interesting to see how he does in Peterborough this season and if he can become an even better centre.
research from Wikipedia.com and eliteprospects.com