Leafs’ Hunwick gets chance to play, and lead
Journeyman defenceman gets an A on his sweater, joins Phaneuf on top pairing
It raised a few eyebrows — over eyes that may not have really been paying attention — when defenceman Matt Hunwick emerged for his first game as a Maple Leaf wearing an A on his sweater.
Alternate captains are not normally outsiders new to the room. They don’t usually have a resume of a 30year old NHL journeyman.
But then, this is not like any other Maple Leafs season. And if role models are what the coaching staff is after in its leaders, then the hardworking Hunwick fits the bill.
“I was surprised, for sure,” Hunwick said. “Definitely humbled. It’s a great honour. And more responsibility. But it’s a challenge I like to have. Hopefully I can lead the way I always do, going about my business the right way. (There won’t be) a lot of changes because there’s a letter on my sweater.” When Mike Babcock promised a clean slate, he meant it. While Hunwick joined Tyler Bozak with an A, Joffrey Lupul lost his.
“Mike called me in and talked to me about it,” Lupul said. “That’s who he selected. I think they’re both good. I’m happy for both of them.”
Babcock well knows the talents of Friday’s opponents, players like Tomas Tatar and Henrik Nyquist of the Detroit Red Wings. He reminds the media almost daily that he is really only getting to know the Leafs.
And as Babcock got to know Hunwick through three weeks of training camp, he liked him.
“He does it right every day,” said Babcock, offering reasons why he made Hunwick an alternate captain. “He looks good to me. On our team, he’s been excellent. He moves the puck. He’s got a good stick. He’s great in the gym. He’s a good man.
“He’s come to a place with an op- portunity to be more important. He’s of an age that he’s an important player for us.”
The Leafs, who signed him to a twoyear deal over the summer, are Hunwick’s fourth team, with previous stops in Boston and Colorado and with the New York Rangers. He lost his blue-line job with the Rangers last year when they traded for Keith Yandle.
“I was the seventh guy for the last half of the year,” Hunwick said. “Every day you try to earn an opportunity and earn their trust and their faith and try to get rewarded with ice time.”
Hunwick was a four-year player at the University of Michigan, and a seventh-round pick (244th overall) of the Bruins in the 2004 draft. Listed at five-foot-11, he seems smaller than that, and he believes his size held him back.
But his speed and skill can’t be denied. The new regime in Toronto is leaning that way more often, and the league appears to be gravitating away from size as a requirement. That is good news for the puck-moving defender who is getting an honest shot in Toronto from a coaching staff that sees him not just as a defenceman but as a leader.
“It’s preparation and what I do away from the rink,” Hunwick said. “I try to do the right things every day. When practice starts, I try to compete, work hard. That’s what I’ve done my whole career to get here.”
Now he has a big role, playing on the top pairing with Dion Phaneuf.
“He’s a real good partner for Dion because he does a ton of skating and he knows how to play,” Babcock said.
It’s a role with which Hunwick has familiarity. He spent some time in Colorado teamed with Erik Johnson on the Avalanche’s top pairing.
“I think we both can get up in the play,” Hunwick said. “Dion skates well. I think we both have some different strengths for sure. He’s a big guy, great shot, physical player. Those words don’t describe me. Hopefully we can complement each other well and use our experience to our advantage.”
The Leafs, who lost their home opener, have a chance to earn Babcock’s first win behind the Leafs bench against his old team, the Red Wings. “It would be great for him to get his first win in Detroit,” Hunwick said. “Hopefully we can make that happen.”