Just watch him

Joe Colborne knows the situation.

He knows, at age 21, he’s a bit of a longshot to make the Toronto Maple Leafs out of training camp.

The Maple Leafs, after all, signed free agent Tim Connolly and have slotted him in as their No. 1 centre while Mikhail Grabovski, coming off a breakout season in which he scored 29 goals, is in the No. 2 slot.

Another free agent, Matthew Lombardi, is recovering after missing last season with a concussion, but if healthy, he’ll be the No. 3 centre leaving Tyler Bozak as the leading candidate to be the pivot on the fourth line.

Colborne, meanwhile, isn’t really concerned about depth charts these days.

His No. 1 goal is to impress the Maple Leafs management and coaching staff to the point that when there is an opening up the middle, he’ll be the first guy they think about. For that to happen, the 6-foot-5 and 213-pound Calgary, Alta., native knows he has to work his tail off, be it with the Maple Leafs or with the Marlies of the American Hockey League.

"I think I have to go out there, show how I am different from the other centers," Colborne said. "We have guys like (Tim) Connolly and (Tyler) Bozak and (Matthew) Lombardi and a lot of smaller guys, and I’m going there to show how I can control the puck down low, win battles, set guys up, but also take the puck to the net and cause a big commotion up front whether that’s on the power play or at even strength.

"I hope I bring some diversity to the lineup and I also want to show I am comfortable playing on the wing as well. I played wing in college and last year was a bit of a change getting back to the centre position."

Colborne got his first taste of NHL action late last season and it only made him want to work harder to get to the show.

"I pride myself on being the hardest worker," Colborne said. "During combine interviews everybody was saying I was a twig at 6-foot-4 and 170 pounds and that I was going to get knocked off the puck and I told them, ‘I can’t deny that now, but I’m eating six meals a day and I’m going to grow and get strong.’ I guaranteed them all that I would never get outworked and I really took that to heart.

"This year I really focused on my leg strength and my first step and I feel really comfortable going against bigger guys down low. I love that because I know I can win most of those battles and when I get up against a smaller guy, especially in the offensive zone, I can stick my butt into him and turn and he has no chance to get the puck."

Drafted by the Boston Bruins in the first round of the 2008 NHL entry draft (16th overall), Colborne left the University of Denver where he played for two years scoring 32 goals and 72 points in 79 games.

He played six games with Providence in the 2009-10 season and then scored 12 goals and 26 points in 55 games before being dealt to Toronto along with a draft pick for veteran defenceman Tomas Kaberle.

The Bruins would go on to win the Stanley Cup, but Kaberle’s play was below par and he has since signed to play with the Carolina Hurricanes. Colborne, meanwhile, remains an important piece of the puzzle as far as Toronto’s future is concerned.

Colborne said the trade to Toronto caught him off guard, although it probably shouldn’t have.

"It was a shocker," he said. "When I first got drafted and the first trade deadline approached I heard the Kaberle to Boston rumours. I had interviewed with Toronto prior to my draft and I knew the Leafs were interested in me so I really let it get inside my head. Nothing happened. Then the next year the exact same thing happened and even though I’d been through it before, I had reporters calling me so it was still in my head. Last year the Kaberle to Toronto talk heated up again and I said to myself, ‘This is old news.’ I didn’t let it get to me.’"

Then, this past March came.

"I came off the ice after a pre-game skate in Providence and all the guys were looking at me kind of funny," said Colborne. "Finally I asked what the deal was and they told me to go check out the computer. I looked and I saw I had been traded for Kaberle. It was like, ‘Oh my god.’ I went and grabbed my cell phone and I had around 40 missed calls. Five or six hours later I was flying to Toronto to see if I could make it for the game there. It was such a whirlwind."

Colborne comes from an athletic family and credits his parents for providing him with the drive and determination it takes to be a successful professional athlete. His grandfather, Bill, pitched for a St. Louis Cardinals farm team while his dad, Paul, was a baseball and football player.

Paul Colborne, a quarterback, headed to Southwest Mississippi to play football and later transferred to the University of Calgary and was the starter.

He also got his law degree and is now a very successful businessman in Calgary.

"Growing up my dad wanted me to be a football and baseball guy too, but when he couldn’t get the hockey stick out of my hand he just went with the flow," Joe Colborne explained.

He has three sisters who are basketball stars. Lauren, the oldest, played at the University of Alberta. Melissa played at Yale and now plays professionally in Germany, while Claire, whom Joe said is probably the most talented of the three, plays at the University of New Brunswick and was the CIS rookie of the year last season.

In 20 games with the Marlies last season Joe scored eight goals and 16 points and he had an assist in his NHL debut April 9 against the Montreal Canadiens.

Marlies head coach Dallas Eakins is impressed with the kid’s determination to take the next step in his career.

"He doesn’t leave any stone unturned," Eakins said. "This kid is a fanatic about his diet; he works hard in the weight room and he has real attention to detail. He knows the process that it is going to take to get there and he’s not one of these guys that has to get there really fast.

"At the same time, he’s trying to learn everything so that he can make it as fast as he can."

Eakins added Colborne is only now just understanding how much of a force he can be on the ice.

"He’s just starting to figure out how to play down low," Eakins said. "We already know he has the hands and the vision to do it. When he got to us last year, he would get the puck down low and he would try to get rid of it right away.

"As he got stronger late in the season it was almost as though you could see the little bulb go off inside his head and he was thinking, ‘Wow, I am strong and I can take this 220-pound defenceman with me to the net.’ When you have that kind of power and hands like his, sometimes it might cover off his skating. It’s not like he’s a bad skater.’"

Colborne showed that skill in Sunday morning’s scrimmages when he was solid at both ends of the rink.

On his last shift of the game he took the puck down low in the offensive zone, physically battled two defenders as he made his way to the blueline, controlling the puck and then sent a fine pass to an open man on the opposite point that resulted in his team getting a shot on net.

On a previous shift he showed similar skill and determination going head-to-head with Leafs tough guy Jay Rosehill down low in the defensive zone.

"I thought today he was great in the scrimmage," Eakins said. "If you didn’t know anything about the game or who the players were, he was noticeable. He was s standout player today and that is very important at this stage of training camp."

That’s good news for Colborne.

"More than anything I want to make their decision hard," he said. "Right now it’s out of my hands. I know the situation and I’m going to try to make it hard for them to send me down."

Veteran hockey columnist Mike Brophy writes Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday on Sportsnet.ca and appears regularly on Hockeycentral.