With Leafs trying to improve in-house, development camp is vital

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The Maple Leafs most recent draft class is going right to school.

All six picks from Saturday will be among 48 players invited to the Ford Centre this week starting Wednesday for the club’s annual development camp. Among the 29 forwards, 15 defencemen and four goaltenders are 17 draft picks in all, seven from 2024 including first -round defenceman Ben Danford of the Oshawa Generals.

The newest picks are Slovenian-Norwegian Tinus-Luc Koblar, Chinese-born William Belle and four OHLers, Tyler Hopkins, Harry Nansi, Matthew Hlacar and the lone defenceman of the six pack, Ryan Fellinger. All are between 6-foot-1 and 6-4.

From the 2023 draft is the highly regarded London Knights winger Easton Cowan, hoping to use his third devo camp as a springboard to a strong prospects tournament in Montreal to the main camp in September. Mississauga-born winger Nicholas Moldenhauer, a 5-11, third rounder from 2022 who has been two years at the University of Michigan is also participating.

The rest are young AHL Marlies and free agent invites overlooked in the draft last weekend. Guests from overseas are Russian goalie Semyon Konopsky, forward Alexander Plesovskikh  and Latvian Martins Lavins. One other intriguing name is Owen Michaels, the 6-2 Detroit-born forward named MVP of this year’s Frozen Four tournament, a near point-a-game player with champion Western Michigan. On the physical side, 6-1 Saginaw Spirit defenceman Hayden Barch, son of former NHL scrapper Kris Barch, is also invited.

Assistant general manager of player development Hailey Wickenheiser and her staff will oversee the camp, beginning with Wednesday medicals and three days on ice.

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Lhornby@postmedia.com

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