Leafs kids Minten, Grebenkin look to build trust after stand-out debuts

The Maple Leafs held an optional skate at Scotiabank Arena on Sunday. 

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Fraser Minten and Nikita Grebenkin injected some youthful exuberance into the Leafs lineup during Wednesday's win against the Vegas Golden Knights. The pair of American Hockey League call-ups will look to build on that performance on Sunday as Toronto hosts the Utah Hockey Club. 

"They're bringing good energy shift to shift," said coach Craig Berube. "They're playing hard and they just got to continue to do that. Keep the game simple, don't complicate it, and just do their job and what we ask them to do."

Minten scored his first career NHL goal on Wednesday while logging 15 minutes and 43 seconds of ice time. He never played more than 14 minutes during his four-game look with the Leafs at the start of last season. 

"You want to do what they ask so that you get out there more and just kind of keep building that trust," the 20-year-old centre said. "There's nothing to fall back on. You don't have years of experience in this league, so you've got to kind of earn that and build that with every single shift. I think that starts with just your details and go from there with just being competitive."

That's music to Berube's ears. The coach also likes what he's hearing from the 2022 second-round pick on the bench during games. 

"He says all the right things," Berube noted. "And you don't see young guys do that very often. He's already doing that at a very young age and with very little experience, so it's great see. It's refreshing, it really is."

Minten skated as the third-line centre on Wednesday with Grebenkin, his linemate in the AHL, on his wing. Minten is also being trusted to take on a role on the penalty kill and the power play. 

After Matthew Knies exited Wednesday's game with an upper-body injury, Minten took over his place as the net-front presence on the top power play unit. Minten remained in that spot at Saturday's practice. 

"Not try to overcomplicate it too much," he said of his approach. "Get the goalie's eyes, get in sight lanes, and then try to get pucks back, get tips, get some screens, and cause a little chaos. Maybe you draw a defender with you if you're going back door to get a little more space, or be ready for anything coming to you. They're great players, so just try to read off them."

Minten played on the flank during his junior career, but has been the net-front guy in five games with the Toronto Marlies this season. 

Minten missed all of training camp with a high-ankle sprain, but is quickly making up for lost time. 

"He worked extremely hard to get back," said defenceman Morgan Rielly, "so to see a guy like him get rewarded with his first goal is pretty cool."

Rielly and Minten are both Vancouver natives and the alternate captain has taken the top prospect under his wing. 

"Really understands the game, really understands his role," Rielly said. "Just a great young man. I've had a chance to get to know him and it's been a lot of fun. He has a really good head on his shoulders. He fits right in, so it's on us now as his teammates to make him feel comfortable and just help with the transition. It's not easy. There's going to be really good days like he had the other night and then there's going to be tougher days. It's about the big picture and just learning and pushing through."

Minten isn't the type of guy to get ahead of himself. He prepared for the season by re-reading parts of the book 'Ego is the Enemy' by Ryan Holiday. 

"It's just a couple tips on humility," he explained during rookie camp. "The ability to consistently be humble enough to put in effort and not think you've arrived. There's always more to give and just kind of getting into the process rather than results."

Now that the season has started, Minten's still reading but more for fun.

"I got a couple fiction books on the go right now," he said with a smile. "Just trying to chill out."

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is currently on his nightstand. 

"It's a pretty good page-turner," he said. 

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Minten stands out because of his mind and maturity. For Grebenkin, it's his physicality and personality. 

"Great personality," Rielly raved. "He was here in July and August when I was in the gym training, so I had a couple of chances to chat with him, and he's just got great energy. And he loves hockey. He loves to be here and work hard."

Grebenkin was on the ice 20 minutes early ahead of the optional morning skate. 

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Grebenkin had reporters and teammates laughing after his NHL debut on Wednesday night when he revealed the best advice he received from teammates was: "Backcheck, forecheck, and paycheck."

"I don't know who gave that advice," said Rielly with a grin. "But whatever works, I guess."

Grebenkin logged 11 minutes and five seconds of ice time while landing four hits, which was the most among the Leafs forwards. What did he learn? 

"It's a hard game," the 21-year-old Russian said. "It's a nice team. Five guys go straight, five guys go back, five guys go fight, five guys speak, you know, every[one] speak. And the whole team speak every time and I like it. You don't sit and only see hockey. You every time speak, speak, speak, let's go, let's go, keep going. I like."

Grebenkin isn't hesitating to use his voice even though he's still learning English. 

"It's better and better every time," the fifth-round pick from the 2022 draft said. "And maybe five months ago my English have zero. I use only 'Hello' and 'Bye.'"

The Leafs set him up with an English tutor. 

"I speak maybe 35 hours and my English better," he said. "Every day is better and better."

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Minten and Grebenkin will be joined by their other AHL linemate Alex Nylander on Sunday night. Alex will be playing on the same team as his older brother, William Nylander, for the first time since the 2016 World Juniors. 

"They're pretty excited," said Rielly. "I think William maybe more than Alex, if that makes any sense. He was very excited. We had a chance to chat the other night. So, I think it's awesome. I think it's a great opportunity for them. It's a really special thing for both of them and their family."

Alex started the season with the Marlies on an AHL deal, but with seven regular forwards out of the lineup, the door opened for the 26-year-old to sign with the Leafs and join his big brother. 

"They're pretty pumped," said Minten, who played briefly with his younger brother in the Western Hockey League last season. "That's pretty sweet. I mean, playing with your brother in minor hockey is pretty special, never mind the NHL, so it'll be fun to watch both of them fly out there tonight."

The siblings train together in the summer and play a similar style of game. 

"They look the same on the ice," said defenceman Chris Tanev. "If you take the numbers off, it's hard to differentiate between the two of them. And obviously both extremely skilled and great with the puck, sort of control the game at their pace, which is incredible."

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After rotating between goalies in the last six games, the Leafs will stick with Joseph Woll between the pipes on Sunday. He's coming off a 31-save shutout on Wednesday. 

"Woll's coming off a real solid game against a real good team and we wanted to go back with him," Berube explained. 

The team is also managing the workload of Anthony Stolarz, who has already made 12 starts. His career high in the NHL is 24 set last season. 

"Stollie's played a lot," said Berube. "It's important that we manage that to the best of our abilities."

Woll will be making his seventh start of the season and appears to be back in a rhythm after starting the year on the injured reserve due to groin tightness. His save percentage is up to .922 following Wednesday's clean sheet. 

Karel Vejmelka, who stopped 27 of 28 shots in a win in Pittsburgh on Saturday night, will start again in Toronto. Utah is currently without Connor Ingram, who is on injured reserve with an upper-body issue. Jaxson Stauber, who has six games of NHL experience, is the backup goalie at the moment. 

Woll has won three straight games, including an overtime outing in Washington on Nov. 13. 

"Winning games and stacking good games on top of one another definitely builds momentum," he told TSN. "It's an exciting way to win. It's good to end a game with good energy like that."

Woll made a point-blank stop on Alex Ovechkin right before John Tavares scored the winning goal.

"I don't know why but I just bull rushed him," Woll recalled with a chuckle. "He's going to be the best goal scorer of all-time pretty soon here so you just try to cut down the angle a bit. You can't really react that fast."

Mitch Marner corralled the rebound and sent an area pass to the Capitals end where Tavares picked it up and scored. Marner picked up an assist, but Woll did not. 

"Like, technically, that is an assist," said Woll, who is still looking for his first point in the NHL. "Why do they not give that out? Last time I checked, that's a secondary. I may have to talk to the league about that (smile)."

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Utah posted a 6-1 win in Pittsburgh on Saturday night. 

"Power play was good," said Berube. "They got three. They're fast. They got a lot skill. They make a lot plays, a lot of East-West plays. They get up the ice really well. Their D are involved. So, you know, we got to check well tonight. We got to stay out of the penalty box. Our penalty kill is going to be important. Overall, we got to take time and space from this team in the offensive zone, be really hard on them breaking plays up, that will be really important tonight."

Berube often highlights the defensive side of the game, but the rare two-practice window between games this week allowed the coach to focus on the offensive side a little more than usual. What's he looking for? 

"Attacking more than we are," he said. "There's times we tend to control the play a little too much on the outside. We can attack more, more shots to the net, getting pucks low to high, and shooting with getting people to the net and finding numbers around there. And, you know, just some resets and things like that to the back of the net and making quick plays out of there. Just doing things a little bit quicker, you know, moving it quicker and supporting it quicker and getting more pucks to the net quicker than we are."

The Leafs rank 16th in goals per game (3.05) and are tied for 20th in 5-on-5 goals (37).

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Knies skated on Sunday morning. It's the first time the winger has been spotted on the ice since suffering an upper-body injury on Wednesday. 

After skating on his own on Saturday, Auston Matthews participated in Toronto's optional skate on Sunday, which represented his first session with teammates since his last game on Nov. 3. Berube is hopeful Matthews will take part in the team's next full practice on Tuesday. 

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Projected lineup for Sunday's game: 

McMann - Tavares - Marner
Robertson - Holmberg - W. Nylander  
Grebenkin - Minten - A. Nylander
Steeves - Dewar - Lorentz 

McCabe - Tanev 
Rielly - Ekman-Larsson 
Benoit - Timmins 

Woll starts 
Stolarz