18-year-old Auston Matthews is the consensus best player in the draft, and seems destined to join the Toronto Maple Leafs who have the first overall pick. Juolevi plays with poise and is intelligent on the back end. He was named MVP of the 2016 World Junior Championship with 17 points (five goals, 12 assists) in seven games.
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“There’s no question, we expect a lot out of the player that we’re getting, but certainly not right away”, Toronto general manager Lou Lamoriello said on the eve of the draft.
“I think we know who we’re going to pick”, Lamoriello said. Sweden goaltender Filip Gustavsson (6-1, 190) of Lulea Jr.in Sweden’s junior league is No. 1 on NHL Central Scouting’s final ranking of global goaltenders. Needless to say, Matthews will be leading what is sure to be the next Maple Leafs Stanley Cup contender.
Matthew Tkachuk, the son of former National Hockey League star Keith Tkachuk, went No. 6 to the Calgary Flames.
Just this last season, projected top-10 draft pick Clayton Keller also surpassed Kane, but still fell 10 points shy of Matthews’ record.
He’ll join an intriguing pool of young talent in Toronto, one that’s accumulated under Shanahan over the last three years to include William Nylander, who posted 13 points in his first 22 National Hockey League games, and Mitch Marner, who led all OHL players in post-season scoring with 44 points in only 18 games and was named Memorial Cup MVP.
Matthews, the big centre with an unusual pedigree (Arizona to US national team to Switzerland) joins a team with a revamped hockey office with Cup rings dripping from the fingers of its president, GM and head coach. “I’m trying to take it day by day and enjoy this whole experience”.
With home grown players such as Niedermayer, the Devils won three Cups and teams such as the Leafs were left to spin their wheels until eventually going to tear-down mode.
When the final roster was announced a few short months later, the big centerman was on it. “Conn Smythe spoke of his team wearing the Maple Leaf badge with “honour, pride and courage” and those words are now stitched into the collar of each sweater so that our players, and fans, are reminded of that every time they put it on”. Matthews has shown that he can excel during all situations and should significantly speed up their rebuild. While it’s true the fan bases in those markets may not always feverishly support the teams there the way they might in Canada, their presence in the markets they are in is still significant. USA Hockey continues to grow.
Now it may directly have contributed to one of the players that the league can market the heck out of. Could the Dallas Stars move up or down in the draft order? In accomplishing that, he becomes an inspiration. Along with their other 1st round pick, Laine will be apart of what will be a very outstanding Jets team that will only continue to get stronger in the coming years.
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There’s no way around it: Auston Matthews is the man in Toronto, and that’s not a bad thing.
