We know who’s skating at the Gale Centre in Niagara Falls this week, but how well do we know them? Since I have nothing else to do during the day, I decided to sort the players at camp into neat little boxes, and boy was it hard getting them to all fit without any left over pieces.
First the big number: The Maple Leafs have 74 players at camp this year.
Related
From Aaltonen to Zaitsev: the Maple Leafs 2017 training camp roster
Age
A lot of worry was shared over the Leafs free agent signings this summer, and the amount of rookies last fall, but the Leafs are pretty average when it comes to age. Let’s break it down by groups.
Teenagers
There are 11 teens in this group, ranging from invites like Cole Coskey to the best player in the NHL, Auston Matthews. Yes, Matthews is still only 19 years old.
20-24, aka damn college students.
38 of these players would be sitting around telling you what the real world is like despite never having been out there in the real world. Sorry, my bias against young people is showing.
The vast majority of the players are in this range, which makes sense as the majority will be with the Marlies, Solar Bears, or thrown to the wind after camp.
25-29, avocado toast eaters
These 13 players are all under contract of some sort, and have jobs heading into the season. They’ll be playing for positioning and trying to push their way into as high a level as possible.
30-34, Let’s talk about regression
8 players are in the age group where contract numbers are considered more important than ever, and guys like Leo Komarov are getting pushed away in fantasy situations. Also Roman Polak is in this group on a camp invite!
35+, DOOM!
There are only 3 players in this group and they were all signed as free agents this year! That’s kind of crazy. Patrick Marleau, Ron Hainsey, and Dominic Moore will either be good players or show us why it’s bad to ever like a hockey team.
The majority of Leafs at camp are between 20 and 30. There’s a lot of future left in this team.
Birthplace
Where are these players from? That matters to some people, but to me it’s just a neat fact. I got these numbers from the Leafs official camp list, and I’m not doing anymore research than that and you can’t make me. Let’s take a look!
Czech Republic
Roman Polak is our lone Czech on the list. Sad Roman Polak
Denmark
Like Polak, Frederik Andersen is the only representative of his country.
Latvia
Martins Dzierkals is the hero of Latvia for making it this far.
Ukriane
Dmytro Timashov is here to show that Ukraine is not weak!
Estonia
Leo Komarov is from many places, but he was born in Estonia. Wow, we could make some kind of hybrid, stray animal team out of these single guys.
Slovakia
Kristian Pospisil and Martin Marincin cause us to double up on Slovaks.
Finland
4 Finns! Yes, Leo plays for Finland internationally, but the Leafs put down Estonia, so there he stays. We just have Eemeli Rasanen, Kasperi Kapanen, Kasimir Kaskisuo, and Miro Aaltonen.
Russia
We have 5 Russians at camp this year. How many out of Nikita Zaitsev, Vladimir Bobylev, Nikita Korostelev, Rinat Valiev, and Nikita Soshnikov will hear Nyet?
Sweden
The Swedes are the third biggest contingent here at Leafs camp. Andreas Borgman, Timothy Liljegren, Carl Grundstrom, Andreas Johnsson, Tobias Lindberg, and Calle Rosen make the Swedish contingent total 6. Is someone missing? Nope, William Nylander was born in Calgary, so there where the Leafs listed his birthplace.
USA
There are 20 Americans on the roster. Cole Coske, Auston Matthews, Jeremy Bracco, JJ Piccinich, Jeff King, Trevor Moore, Kerby Rychel, Connor Carrick, Matias Cleland, Garret Sparks, Michael Paliotta, Nolan Valleau, Max Novak, Jake Gardiner, Cal Heeter, James van Riemsdyk, Vincent LoVerde, Ben Smith, Chris Mueller, and Ron Hainsey are the United Statesians at camp.
Canada
The biggest group of camp attendees are Canadian; 31 of them in fact. That’s a lot of flannel wearing, beaver hunting, poutine eating, canucks. Ian Scott, Ryan McGregor, Fedor Gordeev, Marc-Olivier Duquette, Nicolas Mattinen, Keaton Middleton, Mitch Marner, Travis Dermott, Andrew Nielsen, Adam Brooks, William Nylander, Jean Dupuy, Frederik Gauthier, Mason Marchment, Connor Brown, Alex Gudbranson, Morgan Rielly, Josh Leivo Joshua Winquist, Sam Jardine, Zach Hyman, Justin Holl, Nazem Kadri, Matt Martin, Rich Clune, Tyler Bozak, Colin Greening, Eric Fehr, Curtis McElinney, Patrick Marleau, Dominic Moore represent the red & white.
Training Grounds
Where did these players come from? When their name was called at the draft where were the players playing already? If they weren’t drafted then where were they playing in their daft year? These are the leagues where they came from.
The following leagues have one player in this camp: AJHL (CAN), CCHL (CAN), CISAA (CAN), Czech U20, Metal Ligaen(Denmark), NLA (Swiss), NCAA (USA), OPJHL (CAN), SMHL (CAN), and SJHL (CAN).
Two players came from the MHL in Russia.
Three played in the NAHL (USA) in their draft years.
Three more came from the SuperElit league in Sweden.
Four Americans each came from the following leagues/organizations: USNTDP, USHL, and US High School.
Four more came from Liiga in Finland.
Another four came from the SHL in Sweden.
Five came from the QMJHL in eastern Canada.
Ten players played in the WHL in western Canada/Washington/Oregon.
Twenty players came out of the best development league in the world, the OHL in, Ontario (and Michigan/Pennsylvania).
Height
You can’t teach size, and if you could some of these players have had more than enough lessons.
Acquired
Where did these players come from? Where did they go?
The easy answer is they went to Toronto. The other? Well...
Handedness
Of course, the most important question. Who’s a lefty or who’s a righty?
Of course, these numbers will all probably be moot in 24 hours, when the first cuts are made, but it’s fun to check out nonetheless.
Alright, that’s all my camp stuff for now. I’ll report in again tomorrow!
