Leafs draft pick wins turned a lot of heads this year and has now won a major award in his league
You can already make the argument that the Toronto Maple Leafs had a very successful 2022 NHL draft. It is obviously far too early to tell, however 2nd round pick, Fraser Minton scored 31 goals and 67 points in just 57 games, 7th round pick, Brandon Lisowsky scored 38 goals and 71 points in 65 games, and now 5th round pick, Nikita Grebyonkin just won the rookie of the year award in the KHL.
Drafted in the 5th round with the 135th selection, Grebyonkin scored 9 goals and 26 points in just 45 games for Amur Khabrovsk of the KHL. He had an eventful 2022-23 as he spent time in the MHL - the Russian Junior League - as well as the VHL, which is also known as the Supreme Hockey League - 2nd best to the KHL - before finally settling into the top league in the Russian circuit and winning the Alexei Cherepnov Award.
Last year Grebyonkin scored 17 goals and 64 points in 58 games for the Stalnye Lisy Magnitogorsk of the MHL. He also chipped in with 2 goals and 13 points in 9 playoff games. He started the 2022-23 season with Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL before being loaned out to Amur Khabarovsk. He is expected to return to Metallurg Magnitogorsk next season.
With the Leafs only having 5 picks in the 2022 NHL draft, including none in the first round, they have done pretty well so far all things considered. Fraser Minten, the aforementioned Grebyonkin, and Brandon Lisowsky look to improve on their very successful 2022-23 next season. Dennis Hildeby also recently signed his entry-level contract with the Leafs. Nick Moldenhauer had a strong year as well, but is committed to Michigan, where he is expected play out his NCAA career.
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