Young Leafs pumped to hang out with Clark, Gilmour, and alumni squad

TORONTO – Auston Matthews sat in the stall to Wendel Clark’s left in the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Centennial Classic dressing room. On Clark’s right was Mitch Marner, who also got a seat next to Doug Gilmour, a player he admired while growing up just outside Toronto.

The scene on Saturday morning at BMO Field was surreal as Leafs of today mingled with Leafs of old before an afternoon alumni tilt with greats of the Detroit Red Wings’ past as part of the team’s centennial season celebration.

“I’m pretty lucky to be in the same dressing room as them,” said Marner, who wasn’t even born during Gilmour’s glory years as a Leaf, but still wore his No. 93 over the years. “You get in a dressing room with this many great players you’ve got to take full advantage of it.”

Matthews, the Leafs’ first No. 1 overall pick since Clark in 1985, could shatter Clark’s club rookie record for goals in a season. The 19-year-old is on pace for 42 goals, while Clark managed 34 as a rookie.

“I mean these are the guys that have paved the way for us,” Matthews said. “It’s special to be around them, listen to some of their stories and just get a sense of how big of an honour it is to wear that Maple Leaf on your chest.”

Practising Saturday morning on the outdoor rink at BMO in advance of Sunday’s outdoor Centennial Classic between Toronto and Detroit, the current Leafs pulled their gear off following practice just as the old-timers got ready to take the ice for the alumni game.

Toronto’s training staff was responsible for the creative dressing room placements, which also saw Curtis Joseph talking shop alongside current Leafs No. 1 Frederik Andersen and Russian duo Nikita Zaitsev and Nikita Soshnikov seated beside fellow countryman Dmitri Yushkevich.

Zaitsev couldn’t stop grinning after taking in some of Yushkevich’s wisdom. A Leaf for seven seasons, Yushkevich also coached Zaitsev growing up.

The young defenceman knew his mentor was taking part in the outdoor festivities, “but when I came to the locker-room it was funny to see us sitting together, the guy who was coaching me, who was playing here — now we’re sitting together,” Zaitsev said. “It’s pretty good.”

He had just taken a photo with Yushkevich and sent it to his father back home in Russia.

“Atmosphere is really good,” said the 25-year-old Zaitsev, who also played alongside former Leaf and alumni participant Danny Markov in the KHL and has trained with noted fitness guru and former Leaf Gary Roberts. “I’m enjoying it here.”

Most of the current Leafs bounced around the dressing room with blank sticks in need of signatures from their heroes. Marner chatted with Darryl Sittler and then got his stick autographed, looking more like a starstruck fan than NHL peer.

Like Marner, Frankie Corrado is from the Toronto area and grew up rooting for the Leafs.

“This is amazing,” Corrado said. “I had a conversation with Darcy Tucker, Gary Roberts, Cujo and Tie Domi and those are the guys I grew up watching so it was pretty amazing.”

Corrado had just finished getting a stick inked by all the alumni and was still savouring the stories he’d just heard from Eddie Shack and Tiger Williams, who played for the club in the 60’s and 70’s.

“It’s so cool,” said Corrado, who came of age when the Leafs, led by the likes of Tucker, Roberts, Joseph and Domi, were a perennial playoff team.

Even the old-timers seemed to revel in the mingling, both with their young peers and old teammates.

“Danny, how old are you now?” Joseph asked Markov at one point, the Russian defender responding that he was now 40.

Leafs head coach Mike Babcock, meanwhile, was enthused to see one of his favourite former Leafs, Hall of Fame defenceman Borje Salming.

“I think when you get to rub elbows with those guys and you see the pride they have in the uniform and being a Leaf and how important it was important to them I think is a great message for our young guys,” Babcock said.