The Toronto Maple Leafs have wrapped up their preseason with a 4-2-0 record, dropping both games to the Ottawa Senators and winning all four games against the Montreal Canadiens and Detroit Red Wings. As always, there was some good and bad to take away, but overall, it was a pretty decent showing for a team looking to hit the ground running under a new head coach in Craig Berube.

After watching year after year of Sheldon Keefe-led training camps and getting a feel for who some of his favourite players were, it was interesting to see who Berube gravitated to early on and singled out as players he was impressed with. We know he’s going to talk about how talented the top guns in Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner are, but there was lots of competition at training camp and not everybody was guaranteed a spot or even a contract. With that said, here are five players whose stocks grew in preseason.

If you hadn’t been following along with our coverage of training camp and preseason, there isn’t a player who made himself known quite like Nikita Grebenkin did — whether that be to his coach, his teammates, or the fans.

He didn’t appear on the scoresheet in the games he played, but coming off an impressive season in the KHL, the 20-year-old Russian forward was a bit of a wildcard coming to his first NHL training camp. Some European players struggle with adjusting to the North American ice, but some pick it up like there’s no transition at all — Grebenkin falls into the latter category. He wasted no time winning over his coaches and teammates with his energy and personality and showed fans a glimpse of that personality after dropping the gloves with Ottawa Senators forward Adam Gaudette in his debut and throwing his hands in the air to fire up the crowd on his way to the box.

With the aforementioned competition in training camp, Grebenkin was unsurprisingly assigned to the American Hockey League, but if he can prove himself playing top-six minutes for the Marlies to start the season, it’s very possible he’s one of if not the first call-up when the team needs help up front.

Robertson dominated the headlines over the summer in a way that no player in the Toronto market should want to — because of a trade request with a mild contract dispute baked into it. The Maple Leafs’ 2019 second-round pick had trouble staying in the lineup in the first few years of his career due to injury issues, but last season proved that he could stay healthy over the course of the season, scoring 14 goals en route to 27 points in 56 games.

The problem is that he was inconsistent for much of last season. He would score five goals in five games and then go scoreless for 14 games. In his defence, he was constantly being shuffled around the lineup by Keefe and couldn’t develop chemistry with anyone in the lineup. This plays into why he requested a trade, but he eventually came to an agreement with the Maple Leafs with a clean slate to win over his new head coach, and frankly, it couldn’t have gone better. He scored five goals in four preseason games and almost certainly won himself a spot in the opening night lineup, with Berube pointing out the improvement in his defensive game as the preseason rolled along.

If he stays healthy this season and keeps up his strong play on both sides of the puck, there’s some legitimate 20-25 goal potential in there.

Rifai wasn’t known to most Leafs fans at this time last year, but after dipping his feet in the NHL water after the Leafs were met with a slew of injuries on the back end last year, he’s primed to shoot up the depth chart and slot himself as one of the first people whose name is called on when the injury bug inevitably hits the defensive corps this year.

You hardly notice him when he plays, which is a good thing for a rookie defenceman. The 26-year-old is sturdy defensively and always willing to stand up for himself and his teammates, dropping the gloves with Montreal Canadiens forward Juraj Slafkovsky in their final preseason game after a routine hit injured defensive prospect David Reinbacher.

His play has caught the attention of teammates, including captain Auston Matthews, who singled out Rifai’s drive to make himself known at training camp.

“He had some games up with us last year and he worked so hard,” Matthews said. “You can just see he wants it and continues to progress, and I’ve been pretty impressed with him and the way he plays hard on both sides of the puck.”

Rifai was placed on waivers and made it through, so he will start the season with the Marlies. You can expect to hear his name called eventually when the situation calls for it.

Another defenceman who caught the team’s attention by simply staying out of trouble and playing his game, Myers was signed to a one-year contract on the second day of free agency after stops with the Philadelphia Flyers, Nashville Predators, and Tampa Bay Lightning early in his career. He wasn’t necessarily expected to crack the roster – mostly push other defencemen for a spot on the opening night roster and potentially be a waivers candidate to give them another depth option if he clears, but he stayed true to his game and is expected to start the season as the Leafs’ seventh defenceman. He has one of Brad Treliving’s favourite traits in a defenceman working in his favour, standing at 6-foot-6 and 213 pounds, and is perfectly fine as a seventh defenceman or a fill-in on the bottom pair.

The Maple Leafs currently have eight defencemen on the roster, with him, Timothy Liljegren, Simon Benoit, and Conor Timmins all set to battle it out for the 5th, 6th, and 7th spots on the back end. As of right now, it seems like Myers and Benoit are safe, so it will likely come down to either Liljegren or Timmins for the last spot depending on how the next month goes.

Anthony Stolarz has to do one thing this season to win over the Maple Leafs’ fanbase and set them up in a better position to succeed this year – simply not be the worst goaltender in the league.

You can read more about why Stolarz could be an X-Factor with this team in this article we published prior to the season starting, but it essentially comes down to outperforming what Ilya Samsonov did from October to March last season. And so far, he looks to be cool as a cucumber both on and off the ice.

His teammates are impressed with his laid-back personality and ability to keep his head clear during times of adversity. He picked up a shutout against the Detroit Red Wings on October 3 and generally looked sturdy and in control of things. Granted, it’s preseason, but he looks to be a better option than Samsonov was already, and if Joseph Woll struggles with either staying healthy or consistency, he could even push him for more starts. Either way, his preseason performance got him off to a good start with his new team.