Mitchell seizes his opportunity

Nobody had bothered to tell John Mitchell the good news.

But there were several clues Mitchell could stitch together to deduce that, after three years of trying, he had made it. Finally, he was a full-fledged member of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The first clue was the day: Tuesday. It was two days after fellow-training camp hopefuls Robbie Earl and Kyle Rogers were shipped back to the American Hockey League's Toronto Marlies, and one day after Mark Bell, a veteran NHL forward, was placed on waivers.

The second clue was when Mitchell skated Tuesday at practice on a line with two Leafs regulars, Matt Stajan and Ian White.

Best of all was clue No. 3: Mitchell walked into the Leafs' dressing room at Lakeshore Lions Arena at the end of practice and the plastic nameplate above his stall was still there.

"No one has really told me anything," the 23-year-old winger said, after dumping his sweaty jersey into a laundry bin. "But I'm still here. I'm still skating on the ice, and I'm on a line that is in the lineup, and I only can only assume what that means."

Some players, such as defenceman Luke Schenn, the fifth overall pick in the 2008 draft, are considered blue-chip prospects.

They just can't miss. And, in Schenn's case, the 18-year-old seems to have gotten it right on his first try.

Mitchell was Toronto's fifth-round entry draft pick in 2003. It would have been perfectly understandable if he'd missed. Most fifth-round draft picks do.

"It is a little bit hard, when years go on and on -- three years, and you don't get the call-up and you don't get anything," Mitchell said.

"And then you start to wonder, 'Where do they fit me in the organization?' And I always felt that I was good enough, that I had the skills and everything to play up here, I was just never really given the opportunity."

Growing up, Mitchell was the star of every team he played on. Nobody ever told him he was not ready or good enough. But then he hit the big city. And one season with the Marlies became two, and then three.

But Season 3 was lucky for Mitchell, even if he didn't think so at the time. The Leafs were abysmal in 2007-08. And the big club's campaign ended long before the Marlies' long AHL playoff run did, and Toronto's upper management had time to take a hard look at what it had on the farm.

"Last year, I did pretty good, I had 20 goals in the regular season and eight goals in playoffs," Mitchell said.

"I think last year was the year they saw what I could do, and they gave me an opportunity this camp."

MADE MOST OF CAMP

Mitchell made the most of it, and now he is poised to actually play in a regular-season NHL game for the same team as his boyhood hero, Doug Gilmour.

Mitchell wears No. 39, which is Gil-mour's old number flipped backwards.

He refers to the Leafs legend as Dougie G, and he even used to tuck his sweater into his pants when he was a kid, just like Gilmour once did.

And now Gilmour is one of the farm-hands, working as an assistant coach with the Marlies. It is Mitchell who is with the big club.

"I have talked to him a bunch of times," Mitchell said.

"But, hopefully, I don't have to go back there. Hopefully, he can come here and visit me."