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Worlds Wonderful For Leafs, Provides Preview Of Matthews, Laine

May 22, 2016, 10:15 PM ET [763 Comments]
Mike Augello
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The 2016 IIHF World Championships in St. Petersburg and Moscow was quite successful for the Toronto Maple Leafs, as Morgan Rielly, Leo Komarov and Nikita Zaitsev all walked away with medals and the club's management got a good look at Auston Matthews, the presumptive top overall pick at the 2016 NHL Draft next month.




Rielly scored a goal and two assists in 10 games for Canada, who their second straight World title with a 2-0 win over Finland on Sunday. The 22-year-old served as the defensive workhorse for Carolina Hurricanes head coach Bill Peters (former assistant of Mike Babcock) and was the only Canadian player to average over 20 minutes in ice time.

Komarov notched three goals (including two game-winners) and four assists in 10 games for Finland, playing mostly on the left side with Florida's Aleksander Barkov and tournament MVP Patrik Laine.

The recently signed Zaitsev was impressive for the host Russians and was one of the two defensemen named to the tournament All-Star team.

The 24-year-old former KHLer had a goal and three assists in 10 games for Russia (who walloped Team USA 7-2 for the bronze medal on Sunday) and led the tournament with a +12 plus/minus rating, illustrating the point that Zaitsev could possibly step in for Toronto next season and play on the top two pairings with either Rielly or Jake Gardiner.




The narrative of the tournament from the Maple Leafs point of view was a side-by-side comparison of the top two prospects for the upcoming draft in Buffalo on June 24th. The big Finnish winger drew comparisons to Alexander Ovechkin with his powerful shot and strong skating, but after scoring six goals against Belarus, Germany, France and Slovakia and a goal against Denmark in the quarter-final, the 18-year-old was held to an assist in the medal round against Russia and Canada.




Detroit's Dylan Larkin and Matthews tied for USA's scoring lead with nine points, but the Scottsdale, AZ native became more comfortable and dominant as the tournament went on.




"(Matthews) didn’t know that he needed to be 'The Man'." US team captain Matt Hendricks said. "Now he’s realizing that 'Hey, I can take this game over'"

The 18-year-old center was the sole reason for the Americans 2-1 victory over the Czechs, as he scored the only goal in regulation and the shootout winner. Matthews also started a three-goal rally with a power play goal against Team Canada on Saturday.

If Toronto management needs any positive reinforcement that choosing Matthews is the right decision, they got it.

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