In case you missed the news yesterday, the Toronto Maple Leafs officially unveiled their training camp roster for the upcoming 2023-24 season and it contained at least a few intriguing names.
Amongst the regular roster players and top prospects that make up the 31 name list, there's one young man who sticks out like a sore thumb. Well... his name doesn't stick out so much as his height/weight stat line does. Keenan Suthers, a 22 year old winger from Belle River, Ont, stands at 6'8" and weighs in at 245 pounds. The kid is an absolute BEAST.
He played last season with the Leafs' ECHL affiliate Newfoundland Growlers where he put up an impressive 18 goals and 40 points in 56 games. Not bad for the kid's first season of professional hockey. Prior to turning pro, Suthers, a dual Canadian/American citizen, played college hockey with St. Lawrence University in New York and played his junior hockey with the US National Development program.
He'll be hard up to land a full-time roster spot with the Leafs at training camp, but I suspect he'll push for a promotion from the ECHL to the AHL's Toronto Marlies for 2023-24. Still, if he can find a way to use his size and physicality to impress the Leafs' coaching staff in camp then anything is possible.
