TORONTO — Michael Pezzetta had other options in free agency.
But when the Toronto Maple Leafs rang on Canada Day, he looked up at the big picture of Mats Sundin, his boyhood hero, hanging on his wall. Over there was a photo of prime CuJo and a bunch of other Leafs from the try-hard, blue-collar era.
The passion grabbed the pen and made the choice for him.
Pezzetta, the former Montreal Canadien, inked a two-year, $1.63-million, dream-come-true deal. Words couldn’t do the possibilities justice.
Speaking to local reporters through an irrepressible grin over Zoom on July 2, the 27-year-old journeyman tried surreal and grateful before landing on stoked.
“It’s hard not to cheer for the Leafs, being from Toronto. I can’t even explain how stoked I am right now,” Pezzetta said. “I’m insanely fired up.
“Just, like, so excited to put that jersey off for the first time. I can’t even explain it.”
A fourth-line scrapper and forechecking energy bundle, the mustachioed Pezzetta had been positioned over the summer as a younger, cheaper, hungrier winger to replace the San Jose–bound Ryan Reaves, a heavyweight he’d fought as a Hab.
Eager, Pezzetta began working out with his boyhood club at the Leafs’ Etobicoke practice facility well before training camp’s official opening. He was trotted out with Toronto’s other new forward hopefuls — Dakota Joshua and Matias Maccelli and Nicolas Roy — at the organization’s September golf tournament. He even joined the team’s fantasy football league.
No one imagined Pezzetta playing all 82, but, surely, he’d be involved in the squad.
Chatty and punchy and proud to be here, Pezzetta’s snotty DNA seemingly fit the fourth-line option coach Craig Berube and GM Brad Treliving were seeking.
“The style of game I play is different from a lot of the guys’, so hopefully that can be an X-factor,” Pezzetta said, heading into the season. “A lot of my game is being someone who is hard to play against, being someone that is defensively responsible, someone that a coach can trust.
“You’re going to go out there and change the shift of a game with a big hit or a good forecheck, make a good play and really change the energy.”
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Pezzetta’s prophesized energy injection never arrived… until now.
An underwhelming preseason and crowded fourth line saw Pezzetta get sent down to the Marlies before opening night. He got injured. He got forgotten.
Playing a similar checking role in the minors, his first long taste of bus life since 2021-22 with Laval, Pezzetta did manage four goals, 10 points and 52 penalty minutes in 37 AHL games.
But not until Thursday, ahead of the floundering Leafs’ game against the mightier Ducks of Anaheim, was Pezzetta invited back to the show. (This following the trades of three depth forwards and the callups of fellow Marlies Jacob Quillan and Bo Groulx, who showed well in Montreal Tuesday.)
“We’re gonna look at guys down there,” Berube told reporters at morning skate. “He’s one of the guys that we wanted to see… for a little while now.”
On the eve of his 28th birthday, Pezzetta may not be able to snuff out Toronto’s eight-game losing skid alone, but at the very least he should have his legs going and his heart pumping.
The left winger can provide a refreshing edge to a sleepwalking roster.
We suspect seeing Brendan Gallagher’s delivering a late hit on Easton Cowan Tuesday in Montreal played a role in Pezzetta’s callup here.
Good on Jake McCabe for sticking up for the rookie, but it wouldn’t hurt to have a more experienced fighter on the bench as the lottery-bound Leafs skate out the string here.
No need to add injury to insult.
The Maple Leafs’ season may be over, yet 17 games must still be played.
Why not give Pezzetta a little peek?
It’s not as if wingers like Steven Lorentz (four goals) and Joshua (seven goals) — both of whom project as scratches — are above sitting out a game or two.
Even if it’s five months later than he envisioned, let’s see if that rush of passion Pezzetta felt when he chose Toronto can materialize as he makes his Maple Leafs debut on home ice.
Upon learning of his debut Thursday morning, Pezetta told reporters: “I’m super stoked.”
Maple Leafs projected lineup Thursday versus Anaheim:
Cowan – Matthews – Nylander
Knies – Tavares – Domi
Maccelli – Groulx – Robertson
Pezzetta – Quillan – Järnkrok
Rielly – Carlo
McCabe – Ekman-Larsson
Benoit – Myers
Woll starts
Stolarz
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