Tyler Hopkins heads to Maple Leafs' camp, feels selection by Toronto 'a big advantage'

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KINGSTON — On Monday, Tyler Hopkins packed his bags, pulled out of the driveway in Campbellville and started the one-hour drive to west-end Toronto to embark on the next leg of his hockey journey.

When next the Kingston Frontenacs’ 18-year-old centre steps on the ice, he’ll be skating for the first time as a professional.

True, Hopkins hasn’t yet signed a NHL contract yet, but he is the property of the Toronto Maple Leafs, his favourite team growing up, and this week he’ll be on the ice with the team’s prospects at development camp.

The Leafs selected Hopkins in the third round, 86th overall, of the NHL entry draft last Saturday. NHL Central Scouting had slotted him No. 52 among its North American skaters in its final set of rankings this spring, so his availability in the third round wasn’t expected.

“I had my eye on where Toronto’s pick was while I was waiting with my family,” he said. “It still felt like an eternity waiting, but it was a dream come true when they called my name.”

While Hopkins described Toronto’s selection as a pinch-me moment, it didn’t come as a major surprise.

“The interview I had with the Leafs at the combine was one of my better ones, I thought,” he said. “I had a good feeling come out of there. I thought they were interested.”

How the scouts slotted Hopkins in his draft class matters not at all anymore — the key going forward will be Hopkins wedging himself into the Leafs organization chart and playing well enough this season with the Frontenacs to make Toronto’s signing him to an entry-level contract a priority for Leafs general manager Brad Treliving.

That said, Hopkins has no illusions of cracking the big club’s roster as an 18-year-old or even at 19. He’s joining a queue of prospects at centre headed by Easton Cowan, the Leafs first-round draft pick in 2023, who’s coming off a lead role on a Memorial Cup winner with the London Knights, two lights-out Ontario Hockey League seasons and a couple of turns with the Canadian team at the world juniors.

The 6-foot-1, 180-pounder racked up 20 goals and 31 assists in 67 Ontario Hockey League games for the Fronts this past season, his second at the major junior level.

Other Toronto prospects down the middle competing for attention include Tinus-Luc Koblar, Toronto’s selection with the last pick in the second round of the draft on the weekend, and Miroslav Holinka, a rangy 2024 fifth-rounder who played last season for the Edmonton Oil Kings.

Nonetheless, Hopkins believes this selection by Toronto couldn’t better set him up for development and success in the pros.

“Kingston is only two hours away and where I live I’m only an hour away, so it’s 100 percent a big advantage when it comes to being in contact with the Leafs’ development staff,” Hopkins said. “I’ll have a chance to be around (the players on the NHL roster) more than I would if I had been drafted elsewhere. And that’s up to me to take advantage of that.”

The advantages of Toronto’s proximity also come with the burden of pressures of the hockey-obsessed market and Hopkins, a lifelong Leafs fan and an owner of three Auston Matthews sweaters, is acutely aware of them going in. No doubt he, like every Leafs fan, knows the city and the media can sour the mood of even an all-star, enough to alienate a hometown hero such as Mitch Marner, who was signed and traded to the Vegas Golden Knights after nine seasons in Toronto. With a Stanley Cup drought coming up on six full decades, Toronto divides NHL fans — for Leafs-philes they are a passion, for the rest a punchline.

On his drive on Monday, Hopkins was trying to look past the troubles and emphasizing the positive.

“I’ve been to a bunch of Leafs games over the years, the last being Game 7 against Florida (in May), which was obviously not the outcome that any fan was looking for,” Hopkins said. “I’ve been around for good times too, like when they beat Tampa a while back and move on to the second round. To have a chance to be part of something like that is pretty cool.”

gjoyce@postmedia.com