Ahead of the 2022 prospects tournament in Traverse City, Assistant General Manager Ryan Hardy discussed Nick Robertson’s prospects for an NHL job this season, the organization’s goals for the tournament, and the development of Curtis Douglas, Pontus Holmberg, William Villeneuve, and Mikhail Abramov.
Maple Leafs’ 2022 Prospect Tournament Roster & Schedule
Date & Time
Opponent
September 15, 6:30 p.m.
Dallas
September 16, 6:30 p.m.
St. Louis
September 18, 2:00 p.m.
Columbus
September 19, 11:00 a.m.
Detroit
Forwards
Defensemen
Goaltenders
#22 Max Ellis
#33 Noah Van Vliet
#40 Luke Cavallin
#26 Nick Abruzzese
#41 Kasper Larsen
#70 Marco Costantini
#29 Pontus Holmberg
#59 Tommy Miller
#80 Keith Petruzzelli
#39 Fraser Minten
#61 Axel Rindell
#46 Alex Steeves
#76 William Villaneuve
#49 Ty Voit
#82 Filip Kral
#53 Curtis Douglas
#83 Marshall Rifai
#56 Brandon Lisowsky
#84 Mikko Kokkonen
#63 Braeden Kressler
#67 Avery Hayes
#72 Sean McGurn
#75 Pavel Gogolev
#85 Semyon Der-Arguchintsev
#89 Nick Robertson
#90 Graham Slaggert
#97 Pano Fimis
How close do you think Nick Robertson is to being an everyday NHLer?
Hardy: If we look at last season, in particular, I think Nicky played 28 games in the American league and scored 16 goals. That is a 40-goal clip for a kid that just turned 22 the other day. That is an unbelievable run.
He is extremely driven. He is a young man that loves hockey. I think he is very much knocking on the doorstep.
Can you see Curtis Douglas developing into his body over the next few years and become more of an offensive force?
Hardy: For Curtis, it has been a really great story for us to have him, after a couple of stops before, come in and perform the way he did. The offensive production he had was probably more than we were expecting.
When you look at what he does, he is a big man that works extremely hard at his craft. I think we have to be patient. I sort of view Curtis kind of like you would view a goalie. It is typically goalies and then defensemen who take the longest to mature, but when you are 6’8, that is probably going to take the longest time to fully mature.
We have to be patient with him. We have to temper expectations. At the same time, he brings a lot of elements that are extremely important to the future of this organization. If he continues to work the way that he does, he will be knocking on the door sooner rather than later.
Are you expecting any kind of difficulty in the transition for players like Mikko Kokkonen and Axel Rindell coming from Finland to the AHL or NHL?
Hardy: There is always a transition. There is a transition for players certainly coming from junior, even, to professional — which we saw last year with a lot of our first-year professionals. Whether it is a smaller rink or just coming to North America, you probably take for granted a little bit the transition for a young person moving away from home or what is normal and comfortable for them.
As we always are, we will be patient with the young players, but they are very talented, so I certainly expect that they will pick certain things up in short order. Some things will take some time. We will just support them and work with them and push them along as far as we can.
How do you feel Pontus Holmberg has adapted since coming over?
Hardy: Pontus is a great kid. We sort of threw him into the fire at the end of the season with the Marlies there. We dropped him right in with Brett Seney and Joey Anderson on our top unit. He played important minutes. He is another guy who has put together a nice resume for himself in Swedish professional hockey or in international hockey. He did a nice job for us at the end of the season.
I am looking forward to him maybe having an uptick in offensive production relative to what we saw at the end. He will be relied upon plenty, whichever team he is on, and certainly in this event.
William Villeneuve showed a lot of growth in junior after having a -50 season. He was +60 last year and won the Memorial Cup. What are your expectations for him?
Hardy: He is an extremely smart player with a lot of poise with the puck. He has done a really nice job this summer. If you look at him and the work he has put in on his body, it has been phenomenal. When players transitioning from junior to professional take that time and attack it that diligently, it probably shortens the learning curve.
That being said, he is another guy that, because of what he can do with the puck, with his size and his right shot, everybody is extremely excited about, especially at an event like this where you can see some real positive flashes from him.
Again, it is patience. It is going to be defensive habits and defensive details, learning the schedule, learning how to assimilate to pro hockey, and learning how to play inside of contact when men are leaning on you and bearing down on you. That is what I expect from him. There will be ups and downs in the first professional season, but he is certainly a guy myself and all of our staff really are bullish on.
Can you confirm Mikhail Abramov’s status?
Hardy: He would have been on this roster. At the end of last season, he tweaked something and he missed the last few weeks of the Marlies‘ season. I think it was something we thought was going to go away with some rest early in the summer. It just kind of lingered, lingered, and lingered.
He is another player that from an outside perspective maybe you would think should have had more production last season. From my perspective — transitioning from junior into first-year professional and with how relied on him, Douglas, and SDA were for us down the middle after the other guys didn’t clear waivers — he did a lot of things that I certainly wanted him to do.
The biggest thing for me and for us is that he is a player who is extremely conscientious in his details and has a great work ethic. I would like to get him starting this season on the absolute right foot, which is getting his body where it needs to be first and adding some strength, which probably in the summer — because he was rehabbing his injury — he didn’t get.
We are going to take a very conservative approach with him and make sure that when we do assimilate him back into the group, we will be setting him up for long-term success rather than us getting excited to see him in this event.
What was the thought process behind the coaching staff this year instead of going with the AHL staff like in other years?
Note: The Maple Leafs prospect team’s head coach will be Maple Leafs assistant coach Manny Maholtra. Assistants will include Duanté Abercrombie, Jordan Bean, Danielle Goyette, John Snowden, and Hannu Toivonen.
Hardy: I think it is a multi-layered decision, really. It was actually Sheldon [Keefe’s] idea. It originated with him. We just talked about, for the Marlies coaches that have gone to this event so many times, there is a redundancy in that. We looked at all of these people — whether it is player development, which Danielle Goyette represents, or Manny Maholtra’s experience with the Leafs staff — and we said, “Let’s give Manny an opportunity to get some exposure and experience in an area to help facilitate his development.” When we looked at the rest of the staff, we said, “Okay, where else can we make those kinds of decisions?”
We have blended together a nice staff from Marlies, player development, and the Leafs. We are just letting everybody get some experience and exposure in different areas. At the same time, we are always trying to develop players and we are always trying to develop staff. That was the thought process behind it. That is really why we went that direction.
What are your impressions of Manny Maholtra in spending time around him?
Hardy: Manny has done an excellent job. He is very professional, detailed, and organized. One thing, to Manny’s credit, is that he is very excited about this opportunity.
It is something we stressed within our group. Particularly for players who have been in this event before, sometimes it is, “Ah, I have to go to Traverse City again and go through the rookie tournament process again?” Particularly with players like Nick Robertson and Alex Steeves — who have done this before and have played NHL games — they’re excited to come here and help grow their leadership perspective.
For the coaches and management people, it is really no different. Manny has approached this with a great degree of passion and excitement for him to get his first taste of head-coaching experience. I know he is excited. He is organized. I think we’re ready to go.
What are you looking for from the prospects at this camp?
Hardy: Biggest point of emphasis is probably just to bring a high degree of competitiveness, abrasiveness, and making sure everybody is playing to their potential or capacity. We want to play fast. We want to be aggressive. We want to have everybody get off on the right foot as we start into the training camp season.
How about the players that are close to a roster spot — Nick Abruzzese, Nick Robertson? Are you expecting them to dominate against the competition?
Hardy: I expect them to play to their absolute potential. If they do that, I am confident they will have a good four games.
Are you giving the goalies one game each and going from there?
Hardy: I haven’t made a full determination yet on how we will attack that. We have a plan for the first two games. To speak candidly, we are going to see where we are at in the event. For us, within our organization, we are going here with a very specific purpose: to win. We want to set the tone here with this event in Traverse City leading into Leafs training camp — that is our expectation.
That is how we are going to approach every day. We will go into the first game putting our best foot forward, expecting to win, and we will go from there.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
