Forward Curtis Douglas is standing out among the young Toronto Maple Leafs prospects.
torontosun.com
He isn’t named for the towering West Coast fir tree, yet Curtis Douglas is standing out in a forest of young Maple Leafs.
Listed at 6-feet-8 before elevated on blades, he’s a Gulliver when next to Lilliputian linemates such as Semyon Der-Arguchintsev. But it’s what the 22-year-old forward from Oakville can do with mind and body that is exciting the Leafs and what they hope he will continue to evolve into during this week’s five-team Traverse City Prospects Tournament.
“He’s been a really great story for us,” said Leafs assistant general manager Ryan Hardy, who is wrangling the rookie roster on the trip. “To have had a couple of stops before (a fourth-round pick of the Dallas Stars via the Windsor Spitfires, with side steps to AHL Belleville and Austria) then to come here last year (the Marlies) and perform the way he did … the offensive production (34 points in 67 games) was probably more than we were expecting."
“He’s a big man who works extremely hard at his craft. We have to be patient. I sort of view Curtis as I would a goalie because they take the longest to mature. We have to temper expectations, but he brings a lot of elements extremely important to the future of this organization. If he continues the way he’s going, he’ll be knocking on the door sooner than later.”
Douglas signed a two-year entry-level contract in March. He’s 250 pounds, but no plodder. He’s creative, uses his longer reach to poke check and be strong on draws. And for all those who have seen big Leafs forwards come through who were too docile or one-dimensional, Douglas added 86 penalty minutes last year and had a memorable fight with Wilkes-Barre’s tough customer Jamie Devane.
He started Wednesday’s pre-camp scrimmage between Nick Abruzzese and Der-Arguchintsev. Douglas’s first game, interestingly, will be Thursday against Dallas.
