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SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

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TSN Toronto reporter Mark Masters checks in daily with news and notes on the Maple Leafs, who practised at the MasterCard Centre on Monday. 

Restricted free agent William Nylander is expected to slot in beside Patrick Marleau and Auston Matthews whenever he signs a contract and returns to Toronto. 

The smooth-skating Swede has not played consistently with Marleau at even strength, but has built up some chemistry with Matthews over the last two seasons. Will that familiarity help smooth over any rough edges caused by Nylander's training-camp absence? Well, it depends on who you ask. 

“Willie’s Willie, so when he comes back I’m sure, no matter what, he’s going to fit in just fine,” said Matthews. “He’s been here two, two and a half years now and he’s a special player and I’m sure when he’s back he’ll get things rolling pretty quickly.”

Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock, perhaps predictability, believes Nylander will be playing some catch-up. 

“Matty’s been here working every day and the guys who have been here working every day are ahead of the guys who haven’t been here working every day,” Babcock said. “That’s just part of the business. We all understand that. It’s hard to manufacture the intensity we had today when you’re not here. It just doesn’t work like that.”

Leave it to the 39-year-old Marleau to find some middle ground. 

“Everything takes a little bit of time,” he said. “Obviously, the more you get familiar with somebody, the better it is. It all depends. Sometimes it clicks really quickly or it might take a few games ... but as long as you play within our structure we should be pretty good.”

Marleau also pointed out that training camp is useful not just for on-the-ice chemistry, but also for off-the-ice comfort. 

“Coming back from the summer when you might not have seen everybody, it’s fun to come back and see how everybody’s doing,” Marleau noted. “Put in some work together and it gets you gelling as a team.”

One thing the Leafs have going for them is Matthews appears ready to explode out of the gates regardless of who’s on his wings. He put up six points in four pre-season games. 

“Really good,” Marleau said when asked about how Matthews looks. “Really good. Really strong. Looks poised to have another great year.”

“I feel good,” said Matthews. “I thought every pre-season game I just kind of got the timing down better and the feeling of the puck and (adjusted to) the pace of play better as the games went by.”

Tyler Ennis has played on the right side of Marleau and Matthews throughout training camp and remained in that spot at Monday’s practice.

 Garret Sparks was picked in the seventh round of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft by the Leafs, but has never started a season with the team ... until now. 

“Tough sleeping in to even seven o’clock,” Sparks said with a smile when asked what it was like waiting to learn his fate. “Just wanted to get to the rink and see what was going on.”



When he arrived at the MasterCard Centre on Monday morning, Sparks learned that fellow goalies Curtis McElhinney and Calvin Pickard had been placed on waivers. So, it was the 25-year-old who took the ice for the first post-cuts practice. Sparks had won the back-up job. 

McElhinney, on the NHL roster all of last season, still had a stall in the dressing room beside Frederik Andersen while Sparks suited up at a stall beside the door in an overflow spot. But, for the native of Elmhurst, Ill., it was a perfect day. 

“There were a couple times when I didn’t think it would happen and that’s what makes this even sweeter,” he said of his long climb to the NHL.

 If Babcock follows his pattern from last season, then Sparks should make his season debut on Sunday night when the Leafs play the second half of a back-to-back set in Chicago. 

“It’s been on my calendar for a few months now,” Sparks said with a smile. “That was a focal point of my summer.”

Toronto plays on consecutive nights just once in the first month of the season and it happens to be in Sparks’ hometown. He’s never stepped on the ice at the United Center before. Now, he’s earned that right. And in many ways his hockey life is coming full circle. 

“I grew up going to Hawks games,” he recalled. 

During the off-season, Sparks, the reigning AHL goalie of the year, worked out in the Chicago area with several Blackhawks players. 

“I was able to train with a lot of them this summer and just being on the ice with players like Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews and seeing how they work and just taking everything in is a truly special experience.”

Sparks played 17 games for the Leafs during the 2015-16 season posting a shutout in his debut, but struggled afterwards. 

“It was quite a ride for 17 games at 22-years-old, but I’d like to be a much more polished and controlled version of myself here at 25.”

TSN’s Kristen Shilton has more on why the Leafs decided to go with Sparks over McElhinney here.

While Sparks won the open goalie job, Justin Holl and Martin Marincin claimed the seventh and eighth jobs on defence. All three played significant roles with the AHL’s Marlies helping the team win the Calder Cup last season. Kyle Dubas served as general manager of the Marlies (and assistant GM with the NHL club) before earning a promotion to the top Leafs job. 

“The GM that was with them every day is the GM here so that’s part (of it) but also their play in camp,” said Babcock. “There’s no question Martin Marincin can play in the National Hockey League, you got to do it, though. And Holl’s a big guy, who can skate and now he’s got to get himself from being on the roster to being in the lineup.”

Holl, 26, made his NHL debut for the Leafs last season playing two games as an emergency call-up. Marincin, 26, also played just two NHL games last season. 

The final cuts on defence included Connor Carrick, who was traded to the Dallas Stars on Monday, and Calle Rosen and Andreas Borgman, who were assigned to the AHL on Sunday. 

* Lines at Monday’s practice:

Hyman-Tavares-Marner
Marleau-Matthews-Ennis
Leivo-Kadri-Brown
Johnsson-Lindholm-Kapanen
Gauthier

Rielly-Hainsey
Gardiner-Zaitsev
Dermott-Ozhiganov
Marincin-Holl

Andersen
Sparks

* Power play units at Monday’s practice: 

Rielly
Matthews-Kadri-Marner 
Tavares 

Gardiner
Ennis-Johnsson-Leivo
Marleau