TORONTO–After James van Riemsdyk was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, his following on Twitter felt a significant increase.

“It was pretty wild,” van Riemsdyk said in an interview on CONNECTED with Sportsnet’s Evanka Osmak. “I had a lot of buddies and my brothers were all over me about it a little bit but I definitely felt some love from the Leafs fans, I think my Twitter followers jumped by about 15,000.”

Van Riemsdyk is now a member of one of the biggest hockey teams north of the border — a team that is constantly under the microscope.

Drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers second overall in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, the club traded him to the Maple Leafs for defenceman Luke Schenn amid ongoing speculation throughout the past year.

“I can’t say I was surprised,” he said. “You hear a lot of rumours over the course of the season. Leading into the draft I was hearing a bunch of stuff too so I wasn’t necessarily blown away about what happened.”

Curiously, the New Jersey native was wearing a Toronto Blue Jays baseball cap when informed of the trade to Toronto.

“When I found out the news this was the hat I was actually wearing, so I don’t know if that was foreshadowing or some dumb luck but I thought that was pretty funny,” he stated.

When asked about being a fan of the Blue Jays, van Riemsdyk smirked and said “I really like the logo, so I’m going to go with that.”

Though the Leafs struggled in the 2011-2012 campaign, the 23-year-old isn’t hindered by the situation and looks forward to the upcoming season in a blue and white jersey.

“Obviously there is a lot of tradition here, there’s a rich history of great players and great teams that have been here. So to play for a team like that is pretty exciting and obviously the city is electric when it comes to the leafs so it’s going to be pretty cool.”

Very excited to start the next chapter in Toronto. Really looking forward to it

— James van Riemsdyk (@JVReemer21) June 24, 2012