Craig Berube Makes Surprising Comments About Leafs Rookie Nikita Grebenkin

Drafted in the fifth round of the 2022 draft, Grebenkin has spent the past three seasons in the KHL, winning a Gagarin Cup championship with Magnitogorsk Metallurg last season. Since being drafted, the 21-year-old winger has skated in 119 games where he has registered 67 points, including a 19-goal, 41-point campaign last season.

His efforts earned him an entry-level deal with the Leafs, which he signed at the end of April and has since made his way to North America where he has spent much of the summer heading into training camp. He even made a significant sacrifice to travel to Toronto early, by giving up his day with the Gagarin Cup to focus on his training in North America.

The now 6'2, 210-pound right winger began training camp with the Leafs this week and after the first on-ice session, he left new head coach Craig Berube quite surprised and impressed. Berube had this to say about the dynamic winger:

On day two of camp, Grebenkin kept building, pushing himself even harder to impress the coaching and development staff in Toronto. Here are a couple pf strong offensive zone battles that the young winger was able to put together.

After one day, it sounds like Grebenkin is in for a long training camp, and by that I mean that he will be sticking around for a while as long as he continues to do what he did on day one. The professional playing experience in the KHL is certainly an advantage for Grebenkin over the likes of Easton Cowan and the injured Fraser Minten in terms of fighting for a roster spot. It's entirely possible that we could see him in the NHL even sooner than expected.