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No. 1 Overall Pick Auston Matthews Joins Leafs Camp

September 28, 2016, 9:28 AM ET [329 Comments]
Lucas Neilson
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Its official, Auston Matthews will be wearing number 34 just like his old man did when he was a pitcher in the NCAA. What a beauty he is going to be, I really wonder how many Matthews jerseys will be sold in his rookie season.

When the Leafs square off against Buffalo on Thursday in St. Catharines we can only hope to get our first glimpse of Matthews in the blue and white. If by chance he doesn’t play Thursday, Toronto plays against Buffalo again on Saturday, in Buffalo.

It will be a memorable moment for many fans as they see Matthews in a Maple Leafs jersey for the first time. We all had a nice taste watching Matthews create some magic with McDavid at the World Cup, but it will be just that much more special when he’s doing it with the Leafs.

Many of us Toronto fans can remember Babcock mentioning that he wants to start Matthews and Nylander together at training camp to see how they play together. I love the idea, and I think with their skill sets it won’t be long before we see some chemistry brewing. It will be like Bill Nye the Science Guy and David Suzuki working together, beakers and test tubes foaming away and goals and assists piling up.

Another combination Babcock mentioned that may have been overlooked was the thought of Tyler Bozak and Matt Martin playing together with a high quality offensive winger on the right hand side. The more I think about this, the more I think Babcock could be inserting one of Brown or Marner on the wing. Bozak is decently responsible with a lot of NHL experience, and Martin also has experience and will ensure no liberties are taken on any Maple Leafs players when he’s on the ice. Not a bad way to ease in one of Brown or Marner if you ask me. Perhaps the Leafs do have a bigger role lined up for Martin after all.

With JVR and Kadri on the top line, there are a number of options the Leafs have in terms of adding another offensive player, or someone to dig in the corners and win some battles. Uncle Leo is the first player that comes to my mind, because he can do both as well as stir it up a bit and ensure those defensemen are looking over their shoulders as they chase the puck in their zone. This often can result in a turn over and the Leafs jumping on a quality scoring chance, that’s the one thing I really love about having a hard hitting player on each line. Make those defensemen cough up the puck after labelling them a few times.

This is where Kerby Rychel comes into play.

He was a player the Leafs went after, it seemed there must have been some interest in Rychel as the Leafs don’t have a ton of feisty players who can score. Komarov being the exception, and really we can’t expect a vast amount of production out of Martin, other than in the hitting department. He’s going to rattle some bones.

Rychel as we saw in the first pre-season game isn’t afraid to mix it up. As the Leafs entered the Sens zone, Kadri was off-balance and got hit cleanly by one of Ottawa’s defensemen. Rychel went into the corner to dig for the puck against the victim, and after bumping into each other, Kerby grabbed the kid and just started feeding him uppercuts. It’s not something we have seen a ton of lately in Toronto, and personally, I liked it. It showed Rychel wants to impress not only the coaching staff, but get the respect of the players on his new team. Kadri is one of Toronto’s most offensive players, and I’m sure he would be happy to know going forward that Rychel would and will have his back when push comes to shove.

Rychel will have to show off the rest of his skills going forward, he’s shown he can dance, now it’s time to impress in other ways. Kerby may not make the team out of camp, but I have a feeling once he learns Babcock’s system on the Marlies, he will be the first, if not one of the first players to be called up.

Marner was explosive in the first pre-season game of the year. He was flying on the ice, creating plays, hitting the post and ended up with two assists on the night. An excellent showing by the youngster, already a big improvement from last year’s pre-season. I really want Marner to make the Leafs, and for 82 games. Babcock’s leadership as a coach will have no issues teaching Mitch everything it takes to be a professional NHL player. This is why keeping a player like Laich on the team is extremely valuable, not only is he a good mentor, but he works very hard, he reminds me of Gary Roberts in some ways.

As camp progresses, so will the cuts. Be sure to tune in for tomorrow night’s game versus Buffalo.

Thanks for reading, happy hump day!
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