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TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

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TORONTO – Most of the Maple Leafs’ annual week-long development camp is devoted to drills, skills and lots of practice. For the camp’s final session on Saturday, the 37 draft picks and free agent invitees finally got to play.

The 48-minute scrimmage, played half at 5-on-5 and half 4-on-4, was a chance for prospects to showcase what they’d learned over the previous four days of on-ice activities, led by Leafs’ director of player development Scott Pellerin. Campers cover everything from skating and shooting to board battles, picking up tips and tricks along the way from Pellerin and the dozen or more coaches on his staff.  

Assessing young, raw talent in early summer isn’t a hard science, and this year’s crop of camp attendees didn’t include a single first-round draft selection or blue-chip prospect. However, despite a slightly slower level of competition, a handful of players rose to the top during drills and scrimmage work over the course of the five days.

Now it’s up to those guys, along with their peers, to apply what Toronto’s staff imparted upon them before many return for rookie camp and the Leafs’ main training camp in the fall.

5 standouts from Leafs' Development Camp

Nicholas Robertson (Second round, 53rd overall, in 2019)

It’s difficult not to notice Robertson when he’s on the ice, solely because he always looks to be working harder than everyone else. The Peterborough Petes winger attacked every drill and every scrimmage shift with unbridled energy, so much so that Pellerin said after Robertson’s first on-ice session that he could stand to take the intensity down just a notch during drills.

But that’s not Robertson’s game. He supplements a high motor with quick hands and a tight snapshot, and plays surprisingly hard on the puck and around the net for a smaller player (5-foot-9, 160 pounds).

Robertson proved to be a slick playmaker during Saturday’s scrimmage too, powering his line on Team White with Semyon Der-Arguchintsev and Justin Brazeau. They didn’t capitalize on any chances, but Robertson still managed to have an impact with his speed and tenacity.

Nicholas Abruzzese (Fourth round, 124th overall, in 2019)

Abruzzese started making an impression on day one of camp activities, showing off his fluid skating and good shot. In scrimmage action, he seemed to be processing the game faster than everyone else, smartly anticipating plays and breaking them up with a good stick to transition quickly from his own zone.

And once he’s on offence, Abruzzese can do damage, first in how hard he battles for (and wins) pucks back, and then with how he can find an open man with strong passes. Abruzzese seems more confident as a playmaker than using his own shot to his advantage, but at 20 years old, he is emerging as a mature, multi-faceted prospect.

He’s bound for Harvard University in the fall.                

Mac Hollowell (Fourth Round, 118th overall, in 2018)

In his third development camp with the Leafs (Hollowell attended in 2017 after going undrafted that year, and then promptly injured his leg blocking a shot), the biggest difference in the defenceman is confidence. He seems to have a lot more of it.

Hollowell signed his entry-level deal with the Leafs last March and joined the Marlies shortly thereafter, suiting up in nine playoff games with one assist. The 20-year-old is such a strong skater that he can get involved off the rush, without having to sacrifice on the defensive side, and he’s good on zone entries. Hollowell didn’t pass up an opportunity to put pucks on net during Saturday’s outing, often traveling below the goal line to keep plays alive.

The maturation process has been on full display for some time with Hollowell, but he looked especially comfortable as the development camp week went on.

Gunnarwolfe Fontaine (Free Agent Invite, USHL’s Chicago Steel)

Fontaine’s unique moniker is an undeniable attention-grabber, but the Northeastern University commit’s game also deserves a longer look of its own.

The 18-year-old plays with a high motor and battles to every whistle, refusing to let his smaller size (5-foot-8, 165 pounds) get in the way of slipping behind defenders and tipping pucks around the net.

In the second period of Saturday’s scrimmage, as teams started to get more of a feel for each other, Fontaine’s skill really started to come out. He scored two great goals back-to-back from right in front of Zachary Bouthillier, beating the netminder with his quick, fluid shot to secure the 3-0 victory for Team Blue.

He can be stripped of pucks too easily and gets pushed around more because of his stature, making it difficult to extract pucks off the wall, but among his peers Fontaine’s offensive ability impressed.  

Riley Woods (Free Agent Invite, Spokane Chiefs)

Fresh off signing a one-year AHL contract with the Marlies in June after finishing his final major junior season with the Spokane Chiefs, the undrafted Woods fits right in with the Leafs’ crop of smaller, skilled forwards (he’s 5-foot-10 and 181 pounds).

The 21-year-old has been a late bloomer in his career to date, getting traded from the WHL’s Regina Pats to the Chiefs during the 2016-17 season and taking off from there. Last season, Woods put up 75 points (29 goals and 46 assists) in 65 games and was named to the WHL’s second all-star team, a breakout campaign that helped earn him a deal from the Marlies.

It was through learning to create offence from good defence that Woods’ development was fast-tracked, and he showed off good hands and speed throughout the week at Toronto’s camp.

While at times Woods, like Fontaine, can be too easily pushed off the puck, his speed and awareness created space on the ice while also showing off strong backchecking during the scrimmage. And he scored the first goal of the scrimmage off a nice offensive zone play.

Honourable mention:

Joseph Woll (Third round, 62nd overall, in 2016) and Ian Scott (Fourth round, 110th overall, in 2017)

Goalies go through their own sessions at development camp, primarily with Leafs’ goalie coach Steve Briere, making it harder to assess them overall. But in Saturday’s scrimmage, Toronto’s top goalie prospects were terrific, denying all comers during the first 24-minute period with some fantastic saves from both ends of the ice.

Woll was especially good at finding pucks through traffic, while Scott used his athleticism to halt a few good chances from the opposing Team White.

In the fall, at least one of Woll or Scott is expected to be with AHL’s Marlies, while the other will be with the ECHL’s Newfoundland Growlers. Right now, it looks like a tight race over who might end up where.