Camp where some dreams begin
Hollowell rebounds year after breaking leg and going undrafted
Mac Hollowell had a bit of a moment at the Maple Leafs’ prospects camp Thursday.
It came during the first scrimmage for 46 players in town all week to work and play in front of a host of Leafs coaches and instructors after last weekend’s NHL draft.
Hollowell, a defenceman selected in the fourth round (118th overall) out of the Soo Greyhounds, fired a goal in what was a 6-2 win for team blue over Hollowell’s team white. While stats don’t mean a thing in this camp, Leafs head coach Mike Babcock was looking on when Hollowell sniped his goal.
“Yeah, I got a goal. It was pretty cool,” Hollowell said afterwards, sounding like he wasn’t feeling any pressure to perform with Babcock on hand.
For Hollowell and the rest, the goal is the same: spend five days absorbing instruction from some of the finest in the business, work hard and try and get something positive going in short scrimmages (two 25minute periods with a non-stop clock).
None of them will be on the Leafs’ roster next season, barring some miracle. There is, however, a shot at an amateur tryout contract with the AHL champion Marlies, which could lead to a pro tryout deal and, ultimately, an entry-level contract with the Leafs. Mason Marchment and Trevor Moore, integral parts of the Marlies’ recent Calder Cup run, were at this camp two years ago as relative unknowns, overshadowed by the arrival of future Leafs Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Mitch Marner. Marchment, who was in Tier 2 junior just two years prior to that camp, went on to earn a pro tryout and then an NHL deal.
He joined Moore on the Marlies’ hard-working fourth line along with Adam Brooks. Last September, Marchment was a “project” for skating coach Barb Underhill, but he remained determined and it paid off.
Hollowell, meanwhile, has overcome adversity to get this far. He went undrafted last year but took part in camp, where he broke his leg. Fast forward to this past spring, where he helped lead the Soo Greyhounds to the OHL final in a season that featured a 23-game win streak.
“I got to the Soo in good shape (after the broken leg) and we had a good season, and I was able to find myself as a player,” Hollowell said Thursday.
If he returns to junior as a 19-year-old, he’ll have unfinished business. The Greyhounds, favoured to win the Memorial Cup, were upstaged by Hamilton in the OHL final.
“If I go back to the OHL, a big goal would definitely be to win it all,” said Hollowell, who was the second-last draft pick by now Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas when he was GM of the Greyhounds.
Dubas’s former club is well represented in this camp with Hollowell, first-round pick Rasmus Sandin, Keeghan Howdeshell and Noah Carroll all in attendance.
The players’ last chance to make an impression will come in Saturday’s final scrimmage.