Rookie Tournament Coverage

The Maple Leafs official training camp doesn’t get under way until September 16th, although the future will be showcased when the Leafs annual rookie tournament begins this Saturday at the John Labatt Centre in London, Ontario. The team of Leafs prospects – which includes former first round pick Nazem Kadri, newly signed Marcel Mueller, Jussi Rynnas, Jesse Blacker, Keith Aulie, Ben Scrivens, Brayden Irwin, Jamie Devane, Kenny Ryan, Bradley Ross, Greg McKegg, Sam Carrick and Josh Nicholls – will participate in three games over the four-day tournament.

The Leafs prospects open the tournament against the Chicago Blackhawks at 7:00pm on Saturday night. Following that, they faceoff against the Pittsburgh Penguins next Sunday and Ottawa Senators on Tuesday. The four-team tournament is an annual event held by the Leafs that gives the organization an indication of where their prospects are at on the developmental track and how they match up against other team’s top prospects. Some of the players participating in the camp will have the opportunity to display their talents to bid for a bigger role at the main camps.

Leafs Nation Online will have exclusive coverage of the event, with pre-and-post game coverage of all three Leaf games, exclusive player profiles, game photos, and instant updates throughout the tournament. I'll be in attendance for Saturday night’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks and will be posting live tweets throughout the game with thoughts on each player. If you haven’t already, be sure to follow us on Twitter @leafsnationweb to recieve updates throughout the weekend.

The full tournament schedule and complete Leafs roster can be found here. Last minute tickets can be purchased at the John Labatt Centre Box Office, by calling (866) 455-2849 or visiting online at http://www.johnlabattcentre.com/.

Stay tuned for updates this week leading up to the tournament.