Maple Leafs’ top draft pick Sandin leaving options open
TORONTO — Rasmus Sandin was like a hockey sponge Tuesday.
In joining 45 other players at the first on-ice sessions at the Maple Leafs prospects camp, Sandin absorbed every detail and pointer provided by as many as 10 instructors, including the legendary Hayley Wickenheiser.
With the camp running through into Saturday, Sandin — who the Leafs selected in the first round, 29th overall, at last Saturday’s National Hockey League draft — will certainly be attentive all week long here.
The focus for Sandin is his immediate future. The players all realize they will not be part of Mike Babcock’s roster, so it’s how to get there and how soon.
For Sandin, that’s a question with optional answers right now.
Sandin will return to Sweden to prepare for Sweden’s World Junior camp in Kamloops at the end of July. That’s an indication he’s in the mix for the defending silver medallists who lost a heartbreaker to Canada for gold last Christmas.
“I have (two remaining years of eligibility) with junior hockey, but we’ll see what happens.”
It’s expected Sandin will be at Leafs rookie camp in September, but after that, who knows where. Sandin, who starred with the Soo Greyhounds, said that he “wants to play with men.”
That means a return to Sweden and the SHL, where he can develop his game against top pros in his homeland. If so, Sandin would play for his former Rogle BK team where he played five games last season, before joining the
Soo for 51 regular season games, and an inspiring run to the OHL championship series against Hamilton, who won.
Rogle BK still holds his contract, but it contains the same exit clause fellow prospect Carl Grundstrom had when he joined the Marlies last season, and became a force in the club’s Calder Cup championship run.Right now, Grundstrom is a strong candidate for a fourth-line job with the Leafs next season. A second-round pick in 2016, he spent the ’16-17 season with Frolunda in the SHL, signed a three year entry level contract with the Leafs in April ’17, then split last season between Frolunda and the Marlies’ championship run.
Timothy Liljegren, Toronto’s first round pick in ’17, also played with Rogle BK, but was kept with the Marlies all last season to develop.He helped the Marlies power play, and in the playoffs.
The Liljegren mould could be the one the Leafs have in mind for Sandin; they could also see Sandin serving another season in the OHL, and a berth in the World Junior championships, which will be hosted in Vancouver.