Stuart Percy hopes he is still in the Leafs future plans

Just like Toronto Maple Leafs fans everywhere, Stuart Percy watched last month's NHL draft eager to see who the Leafs would take.

So when Toronto selected a pair of highly skilled defenceman in Morgan Rielly and Matt Finn in the first two rounds, Percy would have had every reason to have been bothered. After all, Percy was a Leafs 1st round pick last year.

But the 19 year-old insists he has no trouble it.

"I'm not too worried about it," said Percy, who was captain of his Ontario Hockey League team in Mississauga, Ontario last year and is expected to be the leader on the team again this season.

"Teams are going to draft or sign a handful, if not 10 more defenceman, before I get to the system. We got a couple of great young defenceman. It's great to have all that skill on the back end."

“You just kind of expect it,” added the Oakville, Ontario native. “You just have to keep an open mind and enjoy the competition.”

Percy is a smooth skating highly skilled blueliner who struggled with injuries in his third Ontario Hockey League season.

A knee injury and a concussion limited him to just 34 games in which he scored 5 goals and had 20 assists. But he got healthy towards the end of his junior season and was called up to the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies where he played a regular season game and 3 more in the playoffs.

“I was hesitant in putting him in,” said Marlies coach Dallas Eakins. “They had been kind of pushing me to give him a try. He surprised me with his play.”

“Guys like Korbinian Holzer (expected to make the Leafs this season) and Ryan Hamilton (Marlies captain) really showed me what it takes to be a pro. Hopefully I can bring that back to Mississauga.”

“It was a great experience and I really know more now how I need to work both in season and off season.” 

Percy knows the odds of cracking the Leafs lineup this fall will be a difficult one so he is focusing on the OHL and looking at being a key member of Canada’s defence corps at the world junior hockey championship.

Of course he will have his eye on the Leafs – hoping sooner rather than later he gets the call to the NHL club on a permanent basis.

For now it’s getting bigger, stronger and faster for what will likely be his final season in junior.

“The season ended June 10, I took a week off and then went back to the gym. You have to take advantage of every moment in the gym.”

James van Riemsdyk willing to play centre in Toronto

He stood in the middle of the dressing room on a hot July day, and James van Riemsdyk must have wondered what he was getting himself into it.

In came 8 television cameras, countless microphones and note pads as the Toronto media anxiously filed into the room, to hear from the Toronto Maple Leafs forward, who just moments earlier stepped off the ice of a hockey school run by the team.

“It’s a little different,” said van Riemsdyk as he looked around the large media gathering. “Obviously is it still July but you sense the excitement over hockey here.”

That you do.

In his first face to face meeting with the Toronto media, van Riemsdyk seemed calm, poised and ready to handle the pressure of playing in the so-called “capital of the hockey universe.”

He also seemed quite open to playing center, a position Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said he would like to see the 23 year-old play in training camp.

“It is something that would be a good opportunity for me,” said van Riemsdyk, who will wear # 21 with the Leafs this season. “I’ve played a little bit in the past. It can help me be a bit more versatile as a player and I think that is always a good thing. I’m definitely excited by the opportunity.”

Van Riemsdyk played center in college, but with the Philadelphia Flyers loaded up the middle, he never played the position during his time in Philadelphia. So to feel better about the position, van Riemsdyk has been spending his down time watching video.

 “I kind of asked for some stuff that he (Carlyle) would like to see out of a centermen so it’s a little bit easier of a transition when I get here for camp,” said van Riemsdyk who had 47 goals and 52 assists for 99 points in three seasons with the Flyers. “It’s a good challenge. The added responsibility of playing 200 feet of the ice is something I’m definitely excited about. “

He’s also excited at the thought of playing with Phil Kessel and Joffrey Lupul and being on the Leafs top line.

“You want to be in those key moments on the ice when the game is on the line,” said van Riemsdyk. “Those are the moments I love being a part of and being out there for. I can be out there in those kind of opportunities it would be great.”

In his three seasons in Philly, van Riemsdyk took 10 face offs. He won just 2 of them.

Injuries have been something van Riemsdyk has had to endure during his NHL career, as he looks to put that past him this year.

As far as an ailing hip – a hip that the Flyers allegedly wanted van Riemsdyk to have surgery on – it’s feeling better.

“It’s all good,” said van Riemsdyk. “That’s what the summer time is for to get everything straightened out. We found a way to strengthen it (exercise program) and keep things feeling good and that’s what I’m going to continue to do.”