Which Toronto Maple Leafs Rookie Will Surprise at the 2019 Traverse City Rookie Tournament?
Good news! Fall is here and that means we finally get to see the Toronto Maple Leafs!
This weekend we get a nice appetizer of hockey, seeing the Toronto Maple Leafs young guns take on the St. Louis Blues, Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings in a rookie tournament. .
After crawling through the dog days of July and August, hockey has made its warm welcome in September.
For awhile in the past, the Toronto Maple Leafs have made it a fall tradition of participating in another rookie tournament. This tournament consisted of the Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators and even the Pittsburgh Penguins for a period of time.
This year Toronto will be coming into Traverse City for the Rookie Tournament, to get a better look at their prospects and hidden gems, they think they’ve found.
Coming into this year’s tournament, Toronto will be comprised of 18 forwards, 11 defensemen, and two goaltenders. I’m here to spotlight potential prospects who could surprise and earn an even longer look at the upcoming main camp that starts on September 17th.
This year’s roster includes prospects from as recent as this years draft with; Nick Robertson ( 53rd overall, 2nd round), Mikhail Abramov (115th overall, 4th round) and last minute addition Kalle Loponen (204th overall, 7th round) meanwhile the other picks- Kokonen, is committed to his current club in Finland, Abruzzese and Koster were not extended invites at this time.
Looking at this roster, there are some really interesting names; Nick Robertson, Yegor Korshkov, Semyon Der Arguchintsev, Ian Scott, Teemu Kivihalme and Jesper Lindgren.
Among the prospects at this tournament, Toronto has invited nine free agents to the rookie tournament; Vladimir Alistrov, Joe Carroll , James Hamblin, Sean Larochelle, Josh Nelson, Marc-Antoine Pepin, Carter Robertson, Xavier Simoneau and Nathan Staios.
I’ve noticed a pattern with leafs management, they seem to like to scout the players on teams that are mediocre to horrible. Obviously when you look at a team that has a winning record, they have good players and generally when building a team, you want good players.
As for the bad teams, they have lesser talented players and tend to get scouted a lot less. If a team can go down an unbeaten path and find hidden gems, they tend to come out on top in the long run.
This practice does come with obvious risk of swinging and missing on a prospect, they may not turn into anything at all. Of the prospects that were invited, without any previous ties to the Leafs, many of them come from struggling junior teams. I have boiled it down to several names who I think can really surprise at this tournament.
Nick Robertson (5’9, 160lbs, 53rd overall, 2nd round, 2019, LW)
This is one of those stories you hear about and think “That’s only fairy tale stuff, that would never happen in real life.” I am here to say that if you doubt Nick, you could end up being very wrong about him.
Right from birth, he has had to fight his way through, taking steroid injections just to stay alive. This combativeness has carried over into his hockey abilities and led to him getting taken 53rd overall to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
When fans heard he was from Peterborough, many worried about him being Semyon Der Argunchintsev 2.0. SDA and Robertson may appear similar in stature, but Robertson plays a much more aggressive, in your-face style as opposed to SDA.
Many have seen Robertson and compare him to Brendan Gallagher. They both play bigger than their size and create a lot of chaos in the offensive zone and are dangerous with the puck, be it playmaking or finishing off a play. After a full summer of training with Leafs management, improving his skating, Robertson looks to take off this year.
Looking at what he can do at this year’s rookie tournament is going to be a lot of fun. He will most likely be paired with linemate, Semyon Der Arguchintsev, as both have lots to prove to management, they will look to create a lot of buzz going into the main camp.
Justin Brazeau (6’6, 226lbs, free agent signing, RW)
The common issue with today’s Toronto Maple Leafs is that they are simply too small and easy to play against. Kyle Dubas sees this concern and signs hulking forward Justin Brazeau, a man amongst boys in the OHL in the 2018-19 season.
Coming from New Liskeard, Ontario, Brazeau is one of very few forwards in the organization that crack 6’3. At 6’6″ and 225 lbs, Brazeau is physically prepared for the pros. it does need to be cautioned, he went undrafted twice, in part because of his skating ability.
Luckily, the Toronto Maple Leafs have an impressive development program, which should be able to turn a 113-point-scorer into a prospect with real NHL upside.
In sports, there are late bloomers all the time and Brazeau could be one of them, if so, that would be dearly needed for the Leafs and their annual cap crunches.
Not only is he huge, but he has the ability to play with the skilled players too- the 113 points says something about that. The red flag is that he did this damage against younger competition and his skating is a weak point, but he has been working on his skating all summer and he has a great hockey brain.
I personally love his chances of working out in a Leafs jersey, but another road block for him to “step over” is that he plays RW, something that Toronto has an abundance of.
Coming into this year’s rookie tournament, Brazeau has a lot to prove, as he has the tools to be a monster with the Leafs. playing against competition similar to his OHL days, this will help him gain confidence with the Leafs management.
Kalle Loponen (5’10, 185lbs, 204th overall, 7th round, 2019, RHD)
When looking at what Kalle Loponen is all about, it’s incredibly hard. The report on him is that he plays bigger than his size, throwing the body and going for the open ice hits.
He is mobile, as he has good skating technique and is great on the transition. He will join the rush if he has the opportunity to do it. With a heavy shot he can also run a power play effectively but needs some work on his defensive coverage.
The issue now is trying to find out if his Finnish team, Karpat was good or not. If you try going to Hockeydb, there is no team record of when he was in the Mestis league last year.
This year, he was supposed to head back to the Mestis league for more developing with Karpat, but opted instead to join the Sudbury Wolves, of the OHL. Loponen was selected by the Wolves in the 2nd round of the 2019 CHL Import Draft.
Seeing that Loponen has decided to come over to North America, this is very encouraging to see.
Loponen has the skills to be of some significance to the Toronto Maple Leafs down the road, if he can harness the maturity of his game. For this weekend, he is my dark horse to impress, as I think he has a game that is suited more for the North American ice.
Ian Scott (6’3, 183lbs, 110th overall, 4th round, 2017, G
When first taken in 2017, leaf fans didn’t really think much of Ian Scott, due to his terrible numbers and the dumpster fire his team was. Fast forward 2 years, despite putting up insane numbers in the WHL this previous season, Ian Scott still has doubters.
In 49 games, Scott posted 38 wins, getting a 1.83 GAA and a .932 save percentage, while managing to score a goal for him self too. He did everything he possibly could in his junior career with the Prince Albert Raiders, winning the WHL championship, playing in the memorial cup and being named the top goalie of the year in the WHL.
Scott being 6’3 and 183lbs has the frame to be an effective starting goalie when he makes the jump to pro full time, while having a smart brain for the mechanics of how he plays too. Not only does he bring athleticism, but brings smarts to the crease too.
Unfortunately for Joseph Woll’s injury, this opens up a huge door for Ian Scott to show management what he’s capable of doing against harder competition.
When comparing Wall and Scott together, people immediately say “Woll plays against older and better competition, therefore he should start in the AHL first.” this is true, Woll has shown an ability to develop consistently and has faced harder competition with a team that also struggles.
This previous season, Ian Scott got into an AHL game, which he won, but is immediately being put onto the Growlers. Now is his opportunity to show his nay sayers, that he is able to compete with better competition and this weekend will be his first test.
All stats from hockey-reference.com and hockeydb.com.
dark. Next. Top Ten Prospects in the Leafs Organization
That concludes are post about the Rookie Tournament. Hopefully we can see some of these players on the Toronto Maple Leafs in the near future.