Galchenyuk feeling at home in Toronto
It’s been a whirlwind week on top of a whirlwind couple of seasons for the newest Maple Leaf, Alex Galchenyuk.
The third overall pick from the 2012 draft finds himself on his seventh team, and third in 10 days after being traded from Ottawa to Carolina to Toronto. He’s choosing to see the bright side, having gone from the bottom of the North Division to the top.
“It means a lot,” Galchenyuk said Sunday about the chance to play for Toronto. “It’s an unbelievable organization, Original Six. It’s no surprise. Playing six years in Montreal, I know what it’s like coming to Toronto.”
If and when he gets into the lineup, Galchenyuk will play with the best team in the North. The Leafs are on a three-game win streak with a pair of games against Calgary coming up, starting Monday in Toronto.
Galchenyuk has watched as Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and Joe Thornton put on a clinic for how a first line is supposed to play.
“The plays they’re making,” said Galchenyuk. “Auston is red-hot. Watching from the press box, you see the way they move the puck. They play with a lot of confidence. A great group of guys.”
Galchenyuk just turned 27. With 321 points in 557 games, the forward is second in scoring to Filip Forsberg from his draft class.
He’s also played the most games among that group, which includes Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly, picked fifth.
For now, he’s working on his skills and working out with taxi squad players and those returning from injury, including Jack Campbell. The goalie, who practised Sunday, remembered how good Galchenyuk was as a junior star in Sarnia, while Campbell played for Windsor and Sault. Ste. Marie.
“I’m excited,” Campbell said about Galchenyuk. “I played him in the OHL, and I saw him the other day for the first time and talked on a personal level. He ripped a one-timer by me two years ago in pre-season in Arizona. I was like, ‘Remember that shot?’ And he was like, ‘Oh, yeah.’
“I’m glad he’s on this side now. He’s got a great shot. I like his demeanour out there. He has fun, but he works really hard. I think everyone will see how skilled he is.”
There was no real knock on Galchenyuk personally, the kind that usually follows a player who is traded frequently. Word out of Pittsburgh, in fact, was that he was one of the hardest workers in training and practice. He just had no puck luck.
With the Canadiens, who drafted him, the only unusual thing was that his family was perhaps more involved with his career than most families are when their kids get to the NHL level.
Injuries have been a factor, hampering him both in Arizona (his second team) and Pittsburgh (his third). It was a groin injury that he arguably came back too soon from in Pittsburgh.
“We can sit here and talk a lot about what went right and what went wrong and injuries and all that, but I think that’s part of hockey, of playing a sport,” said Galchenyuk.
The Leafs have tempered expectations, calling him a depth player and ensuring he understands he has to earn ice time. In previous stops, the expectations have been very high. He scored 30 goals for Montreal in his third year and has been traded for some big names with good resumés: Max Domi, Phil Kessel and Jason Zucker.