Meet Trevor Moore, a 21-year-old NCAA player whom we last saw at development camp. He played three seasons with the University of Denver (the same college club as Beau Bennett, his role model), and has "potential Marlie" written all over him.
The fact that he has signed a three-year ELC with the Leafs is pretty interesting. He showed enough during development camp for the team to have two-way contract levels of faith in him. His cap hit is reported at 925,000, with a total of 5,325,000 for three years. If he heads to the AHL, his salary will be 70,000.
How did Moore attract notice in the first place? He played in the Frozen Four this past May for a very good University of Denver team, as part of the infamous (in college hockey) Pacific Rim Line. Denver got knocked out of the tournament by the eventual winners, North Dakota, and Moore's line was completely shut out by ND goalie Cam Johnson: "Johnson stopped 21 shots for North Dakota, which limited Denver's high-scoring "Pacific Rim Line" of Trevor Moore, Dylan Gambrell and Danton Heinen to nine shots and zero points."
You can read the University of Denver raving about the Pacific Rim Line here:
Denver's No. 1 offensive line of Trevor Moore (California), Danton Heinen (British Columbia) and Dylan Gambrell (Washington) were all among the NCHC's top scorers in January, combining to produce 37 points (11G-26A) in 10 games played. All three student-athletes ranked in the Top 10 for NCHC scoring for the month, with Gambrell having led the way with 4G-10A-14P (T-2nd NCHC) during a 6-1-3 stretch that saw the Pioneers jump up from sixth to third place in the conference standings after going 6-1-1 in in-conference play. The freshman currently leads DU in points for the season with 26 (7G-19A) while Heinen (5G-4A-9P in January, T-10th NCHC) leads the team in goals (10) and Moore (2G-12A-14P in January, T-2nd NCHC) ranks first on the Pios in assists with 20.JP Nikota noticed him playing on Mitch Marner's line during development camp, where he got an assist on one of Marner's goals:
Mitchell Marner looked good doing what he normally does. He breaks up passes well, falls back quickly to cover defencemen, is the first one applying backside pressure in transition, and generally has a strong defensive game. He scored a goal on a rebound by Trevor Moore (who looked good himself), and made several great passes in the offensive zone.
He's a match for Marner in more ways than one. In his development camp interview, Moore says that his main job is to gain "size." He says kind of wistfully that the other guys at camp play a bigger and heavier game, and that his job during the off season is to get there himself.
Lance Hornby @sunhornby
New Leaf Trevor Moore, pick Adam Brooks, Mitch Marner were clicking on a line @ development camp. Moore, Auston Matthews both born in Calif.The end of the development camp interview is especially ironic. A reporter notes that it must be a fabulous opportunity for an NCAA guy to come to development camp, "Because you won't be back in the fall." And guess what? He'll be back.
The Leafs have signed Trevor Moore to a three-year entry-level contract. #TMLtalk
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) July 26, 2016
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