It was a bit of a roller coaster week for Toronto Maple Leafs’ prospect Veeti Miettinen. On Thursday he was named the NCHC Rookie of the Year after leading the St. Cloud Huskies in points as a rookie on their third line.

For those not familiar with the NCAA hockey world, the NCHC is one of the major conferences for Division I ice hockey. It is considered one of the top conferences from a competitive standpoint. This award was not the NCAA rookie of the year award, which has yet to be given out. Miettinen will have competition with some of the top prospects in this year’s draft that played for Michigan, like Owen Power and Matthew Beniers.

On Friday, Miettinen and St. Cloud played their first playoff game of the season, where he dealt with a scary looking injury:

The good news is that the injury does not seem to be too serious — he is listed as a game time decision for their NCHC semi-final playoff game on Monday and says he is ‘hopeful’ of being ready for it. Even if he doesn’t play in it, even being considered hopeful is a lot better than I was worried about when I saw the injury.

Toronto Maple Leafs Acquire G Veini Vehvilainen | by AT Fulemin

How do you like the Leafs goalies now? | by Katya, and was actually posted before the trade!

Leafs Prospect Roundup: Robertson returns, SDA on the way, Holmberg’s hot streak | by Nick Richard at TLN

Sheldon Keefe: “We have really missed Wayne Simmonds since he left the lineup… It has been a different feel around our team” | transcript by MLHS

Maple Leafs mid-season report: Will complacency become the enemy? | by Luke Fox at Sportsnet

‘A man possessed,’ Hyman adding offensive layers to his game | by Mark Masters at TSN

Another Leafs’ late round prospect, Joe Miller, had himself a game last night with two points, including this nice goal:

AROUND THE HOCKEY WORLD

Malkin?

Malkin?

Malkin?

From The Branches