Brodie Ready To Make An Impact With Leafs

TJ Brodie will make his Toronto Maple Leafs regular season debut in less than a week.

Early on he’s been paired with Leafs blueliner Morgan Reilly, in what will likely be Toronto’s top pairing. With that in mind, Brodie is ready to do what he can to help the Leafs take a step forward.

“I just want to help out any way that I can, wherever they need me,” Brodie said earlier this week during media availability.

With the addition of Brodie and Zach Bogosian to Toronto’s blueline, the team looks better prepared on the back end than they have been in previous years.

“I think it’s great, there’s some great guys, big physical presences back there,” Brodie said about Toronto’s defensive corps.

A veteran of 634 NHL games, Brodie is no stranger to preparing for a new season, but this will be the first time in his NHL career that Brodie is not suiting up in a Calgary Flames jersey.

“It’s been a while since I put a different colour jersey on, it was something new and something exciting,” Brodie said of pulling on a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey at training camp.

And playing in an all-Canadian division, Brodie will see those Calgary Flames jerseys several times this season, not as teammates, but as opponents.

“It’s something that I’ll think about when it happens,” said Brodie of facing his former team. “Right now I’m just focused on day-to-day, trying to get used to things here and the systems and get to know the guys a little bit better, get that chemistry going.”