Travis Dermott opens up after potential final game as a Maple Leaf - Sportsnet.ca
NASHVILLE – A hard realization swallowed Travis Dermott as he sat inside the bowels of Bridgestone Arena Saturday night.
Eyes moist and a touch red, the boy from Newmarket, Ont., who grew up fantasizing of pulling a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater over his head understands he may have done so for the final time.
The trade deadline is nigh, and Dermott has already been swapped on the Internet a million times.
Good player. Movable contract.
He’s fallen out of favour with the coaching staff, struggled to hold onto a third-pairing role, and needs a change of scenery. Management could use the cap space for whomever joins the dressing room in the next day and a half.
Emotional, the defenceman tried to lean on clichés in his postgame availability — “that’s hockey,” “whatever happens, happens” — but Dermott has always been as candid as he has been quick to smile.
His heart, it couldn’t help but leak onto his sleeve.
“It was surreal being drafted by the Leafs and all this stuff leading up to this. But how many guys play their entire career in the same team? So, it's something that… it's always there. It's always a possibility to get moved out. Wish everything works out as well as it could, but that's hockey,” said Dermott.
He thought back to June 27, 2015, when his life changed for good. For the best.
“It's a dream. I keep pinching myself even to this day. Like, there's no way. I'm still dreaming from draft day. They didn't actually call my name. This is just a five-year-long dream. You try to take it for all it is and really appreciate it. "
“But if it's in the next week or next 10 years, whenever I'm gone, I'll definitely be looking back on it and reminisce on some good times.”
Dermott accepts that “good teams are built on competition within the group,” but he’s found himself on the outside of the starting lineup more often than the two younger blueliners he’s battling with for ice time.
Rasmus Sandin has 51 games played.
Timothy Liljegren has 44.
Dermott just played his 43rd, and possibly his last.