TORONTO – For the better part of the first four months of the regular season, Maple Leafs defenceman Frankie Corrado sat and then sat some more.

Picked up off waivers from Vancouver on the eve of the season, Corrado didn’t play his first game with the Leafs, his hometown team, until Dec. 15. He was a healthy scratch 37 times before enjoying his first bit of stability in the Toronto lineup this month.

Corrado has played in each of the past nine games, his ice-time inching higher and higher. The 22-year-old has played more than 21 minutes in each of his last two outings, including a career-high 21:47 in Chicago on Monday night.

These are small steps forward for the Woodbridge, Ont., native who couldn’t crack the Toronto lineup regularly until early February.

“Obviously I still believe there’s a long way to go for me and I just want to keep showing that,” Corrado said, a fifth-round draft pick of the Canucks in 2011.

Opportunity has creaked open for him following the Leafs trade of captain Dion Phaneuf to Ottawa last week as well as injuries to Matt Hunwick and Jared Cowen.

He’s doing his best to build up trust with the coaching staff, head coach Mike Babcock most of all.

Babcock observed that Corrado was gaining confidence, but was quick to point out the challenges more ice time presents.

“Everybody wants more (ice-time) and the more you get, the better players you (face) the more it goes in your net,” Babcock said.

He noted Corrado was on the ice for two critical goals against the New York Rangers on Thursday evening.

Corrado was beaten to the front of the net on the first goal and then caught standing still on the second, Derek Stepan’s eventual game-winner in a 4-2 Leafs defeat.

“I feel like I have a long way to go still,” Corrado said. “I feel like I can play better still.”

Corrado says he needs to be stronger defensively and win more battles for the puck. He believes he’s made decent attempts at moving his feet constantly, with or without the puck, keeping a tight gap between himself and the play and finding the proper times to be aggressive in the offensive zone.

The earliest returns are optimistic.

Corrado boasts overwhelmingly positive puck possession numbers thus far (63 per cent), albeit with lighter competition until recently when he joined Morgan Rielly on the team’s top pair.

He still feels the nerves even as he settles into a regular place in the lineup. There was a rush of excitement when he was announced as a member of the Leafs starting lineup against New York.

“Those are good nerves,” he said. “Those are nerves that help you move your feet, that adrenalin helps you.”

So too does regular opportunity.

Corrado tried his best to maintain an optimistic approach as he sat in the press-box night after night from October to January. He believes the experience, however uncomfortable and frustrating, will serve him well in time.

“You’d be a fool to say you didn’t learn anything being here the whole time,” said Corrado. “You learn a lot about yourself…how you handle adversity, how you have to persevere and make sure you are always ready because if you’re not playing for that long period of time, you can be down, be out of shape, not be ready to go. And then when you get that chance you don’t make the best of it.”

He’s got that chance now and is trying to make the best of it.