Toronto Maple Leafs‘ 3rd round pick in the 2014 draft (#68 overall) Romanian-born rookie defenseman Rinat Valiev(29) has been fitting into the lineup nicely on a team that’s trying out a lot of its youth movement now that they are mathematically eliminated from the playoff picture.
Regardless, it’s giving a lot of young guys some valuable playing experience and sometimes it just works out.
Having played two seasons in the Kootenay Ice he always put up lots of assists on the score sheet with a crazy 46 in 52 WHL games last season.
Previous to junior hockey in Canada, he played a year in the USHL with Indiana Ice after coming up with Ak Bars Kazan as a youth.
Even in his rookie season in the minors the large 6’2″ 214 lbs. is good with passing the puck up the ice for scoring chances as has 18 helpers through 54 AHL games with a +32 rating.
The 20-year old is signed through 2017/2018, so has plenty of time to develop.