The biggest story from the Toronto Maple Leafs training camp has been about the quick emergence of 19-year old Fraser Minten.
Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe dressed the former 38th overall selection during Thursday nights game against the Detroit Red Wings playing between rookie Matthew Knies and veteran Calle Järnkrok.
Minten played in just under 13-minutes and continued to make the decision to send him back to junior even tougher on Keefe and general manager Brad Treliving.
The duo of Minten and Knies were hounds on pucks against the Red Wings as they were constantly causing turnovers and creating scoring chances.
The television panel in between periods continued to praise the Kamloops Blazer forward with playing the game the right way.
Minten pre-season was summed up in one shift Thursday as he won a board battle in the Maple Leafs zone to poke the puck out of the zone and then followed it up by putting pressure in the attacking zone, which led to him picking off a midair pass. Once Minten settled the puck down he was able to get a shot from a quality scoring area.
Toronto Maple Leafs: Minten Has Had Five Impressive Games
Minten has now dressed in five games of the six pre-season games and has collected four points including a powerplay goal. He also sits third in shots with 14 and only Tyler Bertuzzi, David Kampf, Ryan Reaves and Ryan Tverberg have be credited with more hits among the forwards on the team.
NHL Network’s David Alter posted on Twitter the Maple Leafs practice lines for their Friday morning skate and Minten was noticeably absent from any lines.
Fortunately, fans will get one more chance to see him Saturday night in the pre-season finale as Sheldon Keefe stated after Thursday night’s game that Minten would dress in the final game.
It is time for the Toronto Maple Leafs to become serious about playing the right guys, not veterans with contracts. Minten and Knies have already created an obvious connection; and it would be a lot of fun if the team would go with a third line filled with the kids by adding Nick Robertson.
Management may ultimately decide to send him back to junior and will likely state the decision is because of his age. The “reason” would be flawed as Knies made his debut just before he was 20 years and 6 months, while Minten would be just 15 months younger than that.
The Vancouver native has done everything right and at minimum has earned a nine game audition to start the season.