Young Maple Leafs beat expectations
After 26-point turnaround and spot in Stanley Cup playoffs, players look forward
Toronto Maple Leafs centre Auston Matthews (34) celebrates with right wing William Nylander (29) defenceman Morgan Rielly (44) and left wing James van Riemsdyk (25) after scoring against the Washington Capitals during the third period of game six in an NHL Stanley Cup first-round playoff series in Toronto on Sunday.
played alongside Rielly with Team North America at the World Cup of Hockey.
Leaf players looked to Rielly for the inside scoop on Matthews. Was he the real deal? Would he be the team’s best player?
“Uh, yeah,” Rielly responded. Then Matthews scored four goals in 22 minutes in his NHL debut and those teammates knew for themselves.
Mike Babcock had a pretty good idea about Matthews, who would become one of only six teenage rookies to score 40 goals, but he didn’t know how ready the rest of the rookies would be. The Leafs coach wasn’t even sure that Mitch Manrer, a top-40 scorer by season’s end, would make the team.
But Babcock quickly recognized what he had.
Veteran Milan Michalek was jettisoned after five games when it was clear Connor Brown was able to play higher in the lineup, and it wasn’t long either before Nikita Zaitsev, a 25-year-old Russian rookie, was moved to the team’s top pair.
Babcock would eventually use Zaitsev more than any other defenceman and Matthews more than any other forward.