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Which Toronto Maple Leafs Rookie Will Surprise at the 2019 Traverse City Rookie Tournament?

By Mark VanderLugt

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA - JUNE 22: Nicholas Robertson poses after being selected 53rd overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 2019 NHL Draft at Rogers Arena on June 22, 2019 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Kevin Light/Getty Images)
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA - JUNE 22: Nicholas Robertson poses after being selected 53rd overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 2019 NHL Draft at Rogers Arena on June 22, 2019 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Kevin Light/Getty Images) /
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Toronto Maple Leafs
PETERBOROUGH, ON – MARCH 16: Nick Robertson #16 of the Peterborough Petes skates against the Sudbury Wolves during an OHL game at the Peterborough Memorial Centre on March 16, 2019 in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. The Wolves defeated the Petes 3-1. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images) /

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.

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