Rookie Tournament

[CarltonTheBear]

Taro Hirose restores the lead.

Just saw that he had 7 points in 10 games with the Red Wings to finish last season. Pretty impressive. Bet he's kicking himself for not signing with the Leafs with that gaping hole on the left side to start the season though...

[herman]

thanks Herman for all the commentary. Looks like Kivihalme is the real deal???

Yeah, like Carlton said, the caveat with Kivihalme is he’s pretty developed already and really just here to get acquainted with Keefe and Co. I do think he’s a bit more advanced in hockey sense than Calle Rosén was when he first crossed the pond.

Good golly are the Leafs mobile in the backend though. Hollowell nearly singlehandedly tied the game at the end.

Hollowell is flying out there. pic.twitter.com/5uHOMZQVLH

— Kevin Papetti (@KPapetti) September 10, 2019

[herman]

Taro Hirose restores the lead.

Just saw that he had 7 points in 10 games with the Red Wings to finish last season. Pretty impressive. Bet he's kicking himself for not signing with the Leafs with that gaping hole on the left side to start the season though...

I was really hoping to get him, but he sees the forward situation with the Leafs vs the Red Wings. Couldn’t have predicted the Hyman injury and even that is a temporary situation.

[Bender]

I only caught the third but I love Hollowell's game. He's so slick,so skilled and mobile. He had the puck on a string it looked like.

[Zee]

I only caught the third but I love Hollowell's game. He's so slick,so skilled and mobile. He had the puck on a string it looked like.

I'm mildly optimistic about Hollowell too.  If we can get 2 out of the 3 Sandin, Liljegren and Hollowell to pan out, we're in pretty good shape on D for a few years.  Dermott already in the fold, Rielly still here, the future could be bright on the back end.

[Dappleganger]

I only caught the third but I love Hollowell's game. He's so slick,so skilled and mobile. He had the puck on a string it looked like.

I'm mildly optimistic about Hollowell too.  If we can get 2 out of the 3 Sandin, Liljegren and Hollowell to pan out, we're in pretty good shape on D for a few years.  Dermott already in the fold, Rielly still here, the future could be bright on the back end.

Right now Liljegren looks like the odd man out (the player not progressing) but I really hope I'm wrong about that.

[CarltonTheBear]

Right now Liljegren looks like the odd man out (the player not progressing) but I really hope I'm wrong about that.

I haven't watched a lick of him as a Marlie so I won't pretend to be an expert... but here's someone who can make claims about him:

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I'm not particularly worried about his development. Seems like there was a good chance he'd have played NHL games for us last season if it wasn't for his injury.

[herman]

I think people are going to be pretty happy about Liljegren as long as they're not expecting Karlsson-level offense. He spent a lot of last season going through the Rielly Process*, literally focusing on defense, PK, top shutdown minutes. And since people aren't watching the games and just looking at the points, uh duh. Sandin is going to receive similar treatment this season.

* The Reilly Process was instituted by Babcock and the rest of the coaching staff for defenseman development, specifically at the top of the depth chart.
Year 1: cushy, offensive deployment to start and get confidence built up with success; layer on responsibility as the year progresses
Year 2: the other side of the game; no PP, only PK, shudown minutes stress test to see where this players aptitudes off the puck are
Year 3: put it back together, aiming for a two-way stalwart that is reliable in all phases of the game. Might start leaning into strengths and sheltering weaknesses more.

[Bender]

I only caught the third but I love Hollowell's game. He's so slick,so skilled and mobile. He had the puck on a string it looked like.

I'm mildly optimistic about Hollowell too.  If we can get 2 out of the 3 Sandin, Liljegren and Hollowell to pan out, we're in pretty good shape on D for a few years.  Dermott already in the fold, Rielly still here, the future could be bright on the back end.

Right now Liljegren looks like the odd man out (the player not progressing) but I really hope I'm wrong about that.

I think there's progress being made. He's 19, it's just his really good 18yo season was overshadowed by Sandin's even better season.

[RedLeaf]

I think people are going to be pretty happy about Liljegren as long as they're not expecting Karlsson-level offense. He spent a lot of last season going through the Rielly Process*, literally focusing on defense, PK, top shutdown minutes. And since people aren't watching the games and just looking at the points, uh duh. Sandin is going to receive similar treatment this season.

* The Reilly Process was instituted by Babcock and the rest of the coaching staff for defenseman development, specifically at the top of the depth chart.
Year 1: cushy, offensive deployment to start and get confidence built up with success; layer on responsibility as the year progresses
Year 2: the other side of the game; no PP, only PK, shudown minutes stress test to see where this players aptitudes off the puck are
Year 3: put it back together, aiming for a two-way stalwart that is reliable in all phases of the game. Might start leaning into strengths and sheltering weaknesses more.

Agreed. I like the way the Leafs are doing this with their D. First year as a Marlie, let them show what they got and just let them play their game. 2nd season have them focus on playing defensive zone hockey. 3rd year, combine the two.....Get to the big club.... same 3 year process with Babcock.

[CarltonTheBear]

I think there's progress being made. He's 19, it's just his really good 18yo season was overshadowed by Sandin's even better season.

If he was Canadian he wouldn't have even been eligible to play in the AHL until this upcoming season. Instead he part of an AHL championship winning defence corps at 18 and then followed that up by playing top pairing AHL minutes the next season. Like I said I'm not going to pretend to know what his ceiling is but just based off that I'd be pretty surprised if at minimum he didn't become a reliable bottom pairing defender who can move the puck.

[Highlander]

I only caught the third but I love Hollowell's game. He's so slick,so skilled and mobile. He had the puck on a string it looked like.

I'm mildly optimistic about Hollowell too.  If we can get 2 out of the 3 Sandin, Liljegren and Hollowell to pan out, we're in pretty good shape on D for a few years.  Dermott already in the fold, Rielly still here, the future could be bright on the back end.

Don't forget Kivihalme, Duzak, Lindgren, Kokkonen, Koster, Kral, Loponen and a long shot Rasanen (he is 6'6" all day long).  One would hope that 2 or 3 of these guys can make it at some point.

[Bullfrog]

I think there's progress being made. He's 19, it's just his really good 18yo season was overshadowed by Sandin's even better season.

If he was Canadian he wouldn't have even been eligible to play in the AHL until this upcoming season. Instead he part of an AHL championship winning defence corps at 18 and then followed that up by playing top pairing AHL minutes the next season. Like I said I'm not going to pretend to know what his ceiling is but just based off that I'd be pretty surprised if at minimum he didn't become a reliable bottom pairing defender who can move the puck.

Given that I'm still angry they traded away Stralman 10 years ago, I'm going to rage if they aren't super patient with Liljegren.

[CarltonTheBear]

Robertson finished with 4 goals in 3 games in this tournament, putting him in a multi-way tie for 2nd among all players. All the other players with 4 goals played 4 games though so we'll just say he finished 2nd. Joe Veleno had the lead with 7 goals in 4 games.

He finished in a multi-way tie for 3rd in goals with 15. But in shots per game he would have finished 1st in the tournament.

Kivihalme had 4 points in 2 games.

[herman]

Robertson finished with 4 goals in 3 games in this tournament, putting him in a multi-way tie for 2nd among all players. All the other players with 4 goals played 4 games though so we'll just say he finished 2nd. Joe Veleno had the lead with 7 goals in 4 games.

He finished in a multi-way tie for 3rd in goals with 15. But in shots per game he would have finished 1st in the tournament.

Kivihalme had 4 points in 2 games.

Today, Joe Veleno is about 19.75 years old. Today, Nick Robertson turned 18. 24.25 years ago, Kivihalme was born in Cloquet, Minnesota where his father Janne was playing for the University of Wisconsin-Superior alongside Nick Mulvey, who both ended up becoming the Assistant Coach at Burnsville High (Janne was the head coach), coaching, you guessed it, Teemu Kivihalme from 2011 to 2013. Prior to taking the Burnsville head coaching job, Janne was the assistant coach at Minnetonka, where Jake Gardiner played. - Pierre Maguire, probably.