Development camp is finally here! For the first time in three years, the Toronto Maple Leafs are hosting their development camp in the regularly slotted time frame in July with both CHL and NCAA prospects in attendance, in addition to a few others from the professional ranks.
The Leafs Nation’s Nick Barden is attending development camp, so be sure to check out his recap from Day 1.
The Leafs had multiple availabilities on a busy Day 1 of dev camp, including the head of the player development department, Dr. Hayley Wickenheiser, as well as Toronto’s first picks in the 2021 and 2022 drafts in Matt Knies and Fraser Minten.
Without further delay, let’s dive into things.
Dr. Hayley Wickenheiser
On her promotion to Assistant General Manager
“Nothing changes in the day-to-day of what I’ve been doing here the last year and a half. It’s obviously a huge honour to be working here with the Leafs. I love what I do every single day, it’s been great.”
It’s not a surprise to see that despite the promotion to Assistant General Manager, Hayley Wickenheiser’s role remains essentially the same with the Maple Leafs. The promotions of Wickenheiser, Ryan Hardy, and Darryl Metcalf were less about assigning new tasks and more about re-organizing the titles in the organization.
On Matt Knies’ decision to go back to the NCAA
“Physically, [Matt Knies] is a big boy. He’s got all the tools. There’s a lot of respect that goes to the players to understand where they are at this point in time in their career and what t …

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Author: Kyle Cushman / The Leafs Nation