Leafs Announce 2016 Rookie Tournament

The Leafs and their young guns are headed to London for the fourth year in a row for their annual pre-training camp rookie tournament.  The club announced today that the teams joining the Leafs in this year’s tournament will be the Montreal Canadians, Ottawa Senators, and Pittsburgh Penguins.

Full tournament schedule past the jump.

3:35 p.m. Game # 1 – Pittsburgh (black) vs. Montreal (red)

7:00 p.m. Game #2 – Ottawa (white) vs. Toronto (blue)

3:35 p.m. Game #3 Pittsburgh (black) vs. Ottawa (white)

7:00 p.m. Game #4 Toronto (blue) vs. Montreal (red)

1:00 p.m. Game #5 Montreal (red) vs. Ottawa (white)

4:35 p.m. Game #6 Toronto (blue) vs. Pittsburgh (black)

I always look forward to the tournament since to me that’s what really kicks off the start of a new Leafs season.  That might be a little different this year with the World Cup going on as well, but it’s nice to know we have some semblance of Leafs hockey to look forward to in the final days of summer.

This year’s tournament should be particularly fun as Leafs fans can look forward to watching the likes of Mitch Marner, Travis Dermott, Jeremy Bracco, and most likely, whoever the team takes with their top four pick this June.

The Montreal Canadiens are tentatively slated to pick 9th overall, so whoever they take their should be fun to watch as well.  Ottawa, barring a lottery win, will pick shortly after Montreal and have a shiny new toy of their own to play with.

It’s just too bad the Penguins won’t have a first-rounder of their own to show off.  You can add whoever that first round pick would’ve been to the long list of Leafs to look forward to seeing.