Morgan Rielly was the busiest of the Leafs' kids this week, playing four games in five nights. During Wednesday's game against Lethbridge, Rielly scored the goal that had Leafs fans buzzing this week. Rielly's speed is the real story on this goal and truthfully, was the story all game. You can catch the highlight pack here and you'll see that Rielly figures prominently. Rielly added 2 assists in Friday's game but then played one of his weaker games of the year on Saturday, getting burned twice by Mike Winther, both times leading to goals. Rielly then picked up a pair of assists and played some very strong defense in Moose Jaw's 3-2 OT loss on Sunday. Rielly now has 20 points (4G, 16A) in 16 games and leads all WHL defensemen in points. Personally, I can't wait to watch Rielly play in the World Junior Championships this winter.
Josh Leivo has looked like a man playing with boys so far this year with the Sudbury Wolves. He put together a 4-point night (1G, 3A) on Friday against Niagara. Two of his three assists on the night came off of rebounds given up as a consequence of his heavy shot. Leivo was held scoreless on Saturday but picked up another goal on Sunday against Mississauga giving him 10 goals in 16 games to start the season (24% of Sudbury's total goals for). Leivo will be taking part in both of the OHL's games in the Subway Super Series so if you want to see what he has to offer, clear your schedule to take in those games.
Tyler Biggs scored a pair of goals in Wednesday's game against Ottawa but both of them were kind of strange. The first was a strange back-pass by an Ottawa defenseman that caught the goaltender completely by surprise. Biggs made a pretty decent forehand to backhand move to bury it but it isn't as though he created the opportunity for himself. The second goal was thrown on net from the corner and the Ottawa goalie has doing his best Jonas Gustavsson impression. Biggs has 8 goals early in his OHL career but I wouldn't get too excited about his potential as a goalscorer. Two of his goals have been empty netters and that's not including the strange goals described above. The book on Biggs is pretty much accurate; he's a checker who plays well in his own zone and will score the odd goal by banging around in front of the net. No, he's not Milan Lucic.
You may know Connor Brown as "that guy the Leafs drafted who was -72 last season" but since +/- isn't exactly in vogue among the advanced stat crew, Connor Brown would prefer to be known as the 6th rounder who is over a point-per-game to start the year in the OHL. Brown threw up a natural hattrick against against Sault-Ste Marie in Erie's 6-5 loss on Saturday. He's now sitting at 17 points in 15 games and is in the top-20 in OHL scoring.
Lastly, Matt Finn had a pretty pedestrian 1-goal week for the Guelph Storm but Finn's season to date has been impressive. Finn is 6th in scoring by defensemen in the OHL and has been playing in all situations for the Storm. Finn will play in the November 8th game of the Subway Super Series so if you can only catch one of the two OHL games, that might be the one to watch.
If you want to talk Leafs prospects or just hockey in general, you can find Curt on Twitter at @bcphockeyblog.
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