Auston Matthews winning converts before even setting foot in Leaf camp
Brooks Laich is no stranger to watching top draft picks blossom in the NHL.
As a Washington Capital, he saw Alex Ovechkin burst onto the scene in 2005. Wearing the Maple Leaf some 11 years later, he has a ringside seat for Auston Matthews’s debut.
The 19-year-old forward, the No. 1 overall pick in this summer’s NHL draft, has been turning heads at the World Cup of Hockey on a Team North American line with Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and Winnipeg’s Mark Scheifele.
“It puts a big smile on your face,” Laich, a 12-year veteran, said of watching a talent like Matthews.