'He Believed in Me': Pierre Engvall Looks Back on Relationship With Maple Leafs Head Coach Sheldon Keefe
The 27-year-old was traded to the New York Islanders in late February following parts of six seasons in the Maple Leafs organization.
Pierre Engvall has nothing bad to say about Toronto.
The 27-year-old joined Sportsnet's Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman on 32 Thoughts to discuss life as an Islanders player and how the Maple Leafs helped shape him as a player.
"Obviously, it can be a hard market to play in, especially with the media," Engvall told Friedman and Marek about Toronto.
"But I think you can have it to your advantage, too. The media was always good to me and everyone was really good. I have nothing bad to say about that. You can feel it's more pressure there, I think. You can feel it in the air, somehow.
"I think it was great to play for Toronto. And I think it really gets you ready for what's coming next. I had a great time there and I think I developed good playing for Toronto."
The Maple Leafs drafted Engvall in the seventh round (188th overall) in the 2014 NHL Draft. As a player, not many people knew about him at the time, but Engvall said
"If I saw someone else make it, like from seventh round, like (Henrik) Zetterberg or (Henrik) Lundqvist, if they can make it, why not me?" Engvall said.
"I think my first year coming to the Marlies I think was a learning process. Living on the other side, a long way from home, I think it was a big adjustment. I think I didn't have a good season that year. And then the season after, I kind of lowered my expectations, I got to play out more my game and it went really well in the AHL and I got called up."
One person the 27-year-old credits a lot of his development to is Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe, who coached him in both the AHL and NHL.
"I think when Keefe came in, he knew what I could do in the AHL and he believed that I could do it in the NHL, too. After first game there, I got my goal and I think from then I understand, like, what I did in the AHL maybe I can do in the NHL."
Following this answer from the 27-year-old, Friedman says he spoke to a player on the Leafs and they told him that interactions between Keefe and Engvall at times got intense but you could tell he believed in him.
"I felt like he believed in me but also he could tell me I needed to play better. *Laughs*. We had a pretty good relationship, I think. But he told me when I didn't play good. He was honest about that."
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