Leafs are gathering Steen
Youngster earns spot on roster with hard work Son of Thomas plays just like his dad, Domi says
Don’t get the wrong idea about this, but Alexander Steen approached Tie Domi in the shower after a Maple Leaf practice earlier this week and wanted to tell him something.
It was then that Steen informed Domi that among a bag of old hockey equipment he has lying around the house somewhere, is a really cool pair of CCM pump skates Domi bought him for his 10th birthday. Steen also told Domi that he still has an autographed picture of the Leaf veteran — then a bloodied Winnipeg Jet — hanging in his bedroom.
“ I went to practice with my dad that day and when I got home, Tie had left the pump skates on my bed,” Steen recalled. “ I loved those skates. I wore them until I grew out of them.” We’re not sure if that says more about how old Domi is or how young Steen is, but it is interesting that Domi played with Steen’s father Thomas in Winnipeg and is now with the younger Steen in Toronto and still sometimes can’t tell the difference.
“ He’s so much like his dad,” Domi said, “ it’s scary.” The Leafs and their much- maligned scouting staff would be thrilled beyond belief if Steen turned out to be the loyal, twoway player that his father was for the Jets. Not only did the elder Steen score 817 points in 950 career games, he was the captain of the Jets and spent his entire 14- year career with the organization. The younger Steen will begin his own NHL quest Wednesday night when the Maple Leafs open their season against the Ottawa Senators. Unlike the organization’s other young players, Steen started strongly and got better as camp progressed, essentially playing his way onto the team.
After years of shooting blanks at the NHL entry draft, the Leafs are looking as though they got it right in 2002 when they selected Steen 24th overall and used their next selection to take Matt Stajan 57th. They also selected Staffan Kronwall 285th in that draft and there’s a chance Kronwall will also be in the lineup Wednesday night. Should the three players all become NHL regulars, it would mark the first time since 1992 — when the Leafs took Grant Marshall, Nikolai Borschevsky, Ryan Vandenbussche and Nathan Dempsey — that a Leaf draft has produced that many NHL players. The two have developed a wonderful chemistry and could form a very good third line if Jeff O’Neill remains the right winger. As it is, Steen and Stajan have exhibited a penchant for penalty killing and will undoubtedly see significant time in that role this season.
“ Sometimes it just clicks right off the start and sometimes you have to work at it,” Steen said. “ Luckily for us, it has just been clicking right from the start. We keep working at it and it has been progressing.” Even though the Leafs were very high on Steen coming into camp, he was also something of an unknown quantity. Playing last year in the Swedish Elite League with MoDo, Steen moved from his hometown Vastra Frolunda team and struggled all season while Frolunda won the league championship led by Daniel Alfredsson. But for his part, Steen spent much of the year being mentored by Peter Forsberg, a relationship that undoubtedly helped his development.
“ He was a guy we had very high hopes for, but we didn’t know for sure where that would end up,” said Leafs coach Pat Quinn. “ He has done very well and once that happens and a young guy looks like he’s ready to go in, it does alter your thinking a little bit. Alex has done a really good job in the past three weeks.” The Leafs, meanwhile, departed yesterday for Gravenhurst for a mini-camp prior to the start of the season and to decide on the final cuts before the team submits its roster tomorrow afternoon. Quinn said the team will likely carry the NHL-maximum 23 players in addition to defenceman Ken Klee, who will start the season on injured reserve. The team will likely go with seven defencemen, meaning Carlo Colaiacovo and Kronwall could stay with the team with Andy Wozniewski likely be dispatched to the Toronto Marlies.
That leaves 14 forward spots with Kyle Wellwood, Nathan Perrott and Clarke Wilm battling for two spots with Wellwood likely the odd man out.
“ It’s management’s call,” Quinn said. “ Obviously we’ll be a part of that, but the final call will be John’s ( GM Ferguson). But I expect that when we submit our roster, we’ll be at 23.”