COLUMBUS, Ohio — Five days after making his NHL debut with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Trevor Moore was at a loss to recount some of the pertinent details.
“I thought it went well,” Moore said before Friday’s game at Nationwide Arena. “It was kind of a blur for a lot of it, honestly.”
The 23-year-old winger didn’t have much time to prepare for the big moment, which arrived Sunday against Detroit after Tyler Ennis broke his ankle the night before. Still, a contingent that included his parents and sisters managed to make their way up from California to take in the game and they got the added bonus of sticking around for an extended visit during the NHL’s three-day break over Christmas.
Moore made a quick impression despite seeing just eight even-strength shifts and 5:27 of ice time against the Red Wings — winning a puck battle along the boards in the second period before linemate Frederik Gauthier scored the goal that gave Toronto some life after a sluggish start.
“I thought he had good speed,” said Leafs coach Mike Babcock. “They made a good play to give us energy. Mooresy made a good play, Par [Lindholm] made a good play, and [Gauthier] had a good shot. That gave us energy and got us going.
“We were dead until that point so that was real positive.”
It’s telling that Babcock has already jumbled around his struggling second power-play unit to find Moore some extra minutes there. He had 17 goals in 27 games with the AHL’s Marlies prior to the call-up, and figured prominently in their specialty teams.
The native of Thousand Oaks, Calif., is simply grateful to get any NHL opportunity.
It was a dream come true and had him answering a boatload of texts between all of the other holiday festivities over the break.
“My phone blew up, which was nice,” said Moore. “Just to hear from people you hadn’t heard from in a while. Everyone was just really happy. My parents got the same thing from people I went to elementary school with and stuff.”
Moore wasn’t drafted after two seasons in the USHL and only started to draw NHL interest during his junior year with the University of Denver. He was extended an invite to the Leafs’ development camp in July 2016 and wound up earning an entry-level contract that included the maximum yearly signing bonus ($92,500) and NHL salary ($832,500).
That meant making the difficult decision to forego his final year of college, but he deemed the opportunity too good to pass up.
“As an undrafted guy, you never know what’s going to happen the following year,” said Moore. “They gave me a really good deal and the organization seemed to believe in me.”
Still, it’s been a process to get to the point where he was deemed a serious NHL option, especially since he joined the Marlies at a time when wingers like Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnsson were soaking up heavy minutes ahead of him.
Moore played a major role in the team’s Calder Cup victory last spring and was clearly knocking on the door with the Leafs at training camp — eventually getting called up to serve as the 13th forward during two separate stretches in November.
There’s an even bigger opening for him now to get playing time with Ennis and Zach Hyman (ankle) each expected out another couple weeks and Moore hopes to build on his steady Leafs debut.
“Looking back on it, I thought there were some strong plays that I made and some things that I’d like to clean up,” he said. “I mostly just wanted to take the good experience from it and just get back to work here.”
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