It's official: Schenn stays in T.O.

Luke Schenn's moment of hockey passage, his first sense of permanence in the NHL, arrived with little fanfare, just a brief meeting with Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson before yesterday's practice.

"He just came up to me and said: `We're going to keep you. You're not going to have to go back and ride the bus.' That's all he said," recounted Schenn.

There wasn't more to be said.

After all, it has been Schenn who has been delivering the emphatic message to Toronto management with his steady play each game and his maturity on and off the ice. Wilson's words merely affirmed what those in the team's front office have believed for a while now: The teenager has earned his spot.

Schenn, drafted fifth overall in June, will not be returned to his junior team at Kelowna.

"He has passed the test," Wilson told reporters.

"We played in Detroit, and he was one of our best players on the ice. We played Anaheim here and he was one of our best players on the ice. He has been our best defenceman defensively in almost every game.

"That's good enough for me."

Schenn, as calm off the ice as he appears on it, finally let a bit of gee-whiz wonderment slip out when asked about getting word he would remain with Toronto.

"I'm real excited and it's pretty cool to be part of the Toronto Maple Leafs, no question about that," the 18-year-old beamed.

Schenn turns 19 on Sunday and the Leafs have, historically, been tough on young defenceman.

The argument has been made, quite vociferously by some in the media, that the Leafs risk ruining another prospect by rushing Schenn. The argument says he should be given the opportunity to further learn and develop in junior before getting full-time exposure to the pressures of the NHL and the Toronto market.

Wilson took issue with that point.

"You've got a head coach with about 20 years experience in coaching," he said. "You've got Tim Hunter with 11 years of coaching experience. You've got Keith Acton with maybe 10 or 11 years of coaching experience, and Rob Zettler with six. Then you factor in all of us with our playing experience, you're talking over 100 years of experience. Why wouldn't you want those guys teaching a young player like Luke how to play in the league?"

The coach also sloughed off the argument that by playing a 10th game this season - a threshold that Schenn will reach tomorrow at New Jersey - it is poor long-term strategy because it puts the rookie one year closer to salary arbitration rights. Also, by using up the first year of his entry-level contract, he'll get to a higher salary quicker, a consideration in the salary cap world.

"You don't put people on your team because you're worried five, six, seven, eight years from now. That's backward thinking," Wilson said. "You've got to keep these people on your team if they can help your team and they're ready for it. He obviously is. I said if he was in the top four defencemen on our team, he would stay.

"He's easily in the top four."

Schenn, typically partnered with veteran Tomas Kaberle, has averaged 21 minutes, 24 seconds of ice time. That's third on the club behind Kaberle (25:47) and fellow blueliner Pavel Kubina (22:10). Schenn also has been a regular on the penalty kill and a little power play time.

Leafs GM Cliff Fletcher said watching Schenn's play, and Wilson's confidence in him, made keeping him the obvious move.

"He's going to be in a position to learn here, but the bottom line is he has demonstrated he can play here," said Fletcher.