Friday, June 24, 2016

Maple Leafs select Arizona-born Matthews No. 1 in NHL draft (Yahoo Sports)

FILE - In this May 15, 2016 file photo, United States' Auston Matthews, left, fights for the puck with Germanys Torsten Ankert during a Hockey World Championships Group B match in St.Petersburg, Russia. About a year before Matthews was born in Arizona, professional hockey descended on the desert. Learning to skate might never be a top-of-the-bucket-list item for the youth of the American Southwest, with a prohibitive climate and a scant tradition, but hockey has been on the rise in the Phoenix area since the franchise relocated from Winnipeg in 1996. The embodiment of the sports expansion, though, will be on stage Saturday, June 25, 2016at the NHL draft. Matthews is expected to be the first pick. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, File)

On the heels of the NHL expanding into Las Vegas, the Toronto Maple Leafs are pinning their future on Arizona-born center Auston Matthews. Amid chants of ''Go Leafs, Go!'' the 18-year-old from Scottsdale was selected by Toronto with the first pick in the NHL draft Friday night. NHL Central Scouting ranked the 6-foot-2, 210-pound play-maker as its top draft-eligible project, and he's also a natural center, a top-line position that's difficult to fill.


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