This is an article written by Damien Cox from the Toronto Star.
You can sure see why they're excited about the kid.
Pretty darn impressive for an 18-year-old.
Yes, Nikita Filatov will probably make waves in the NHL some day, if not this year.
Sorry to take a break from the Luke Schenn Watch for a moment. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. Schenn was, it appears, the only significant and positive story to emerge from this too-many-games, not-enough-practises Maple Leaf camp, which ended with three games in three nights and two victories in nine exhibition outings.
No other NHL team came close to giving up as many goals as the mighty Maples this fall, and not once did the club surrender fewer than three goals. That, combined with an attack that will struggle to top the 200-goal plateau this season, certainly makes opening against Detroit and Montreal this week a bit of a daunting prospect.
"Believe it or not, we're much better defensively than we were," said new coach Ron Wilson when asked for a non-Schenn positive development out of camp after Filatov scored a goal and the shootout winner for Columbus in a pre-season 5-4 triumph over the Leafs last night.
Schenn and Filatov, naturally, will be forever linked as their careers unfold. The Leafs, after trading up from the No.7 slot at last June's NHL entry draft, could have grabbed the slick Russian forward, but instead went for the hard rock, stay-at-home Canadian blueliner. Over time, we'll see if the Leafs were bang-on in their assessment, or missed a special player.
Right now, both look to be promising NHL prospects. Columbus probably won't keep Filatov in the bigs this season, while the Leafs may yet make the wrong decision one more time and force-feed Schenn to the NHL sharks.
"It will be not what's best for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but what's best for Luke Schenn," said Wilson last night.
Surely that means a return to Kelowna. But we'll see.
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