Vancouver Giants’ ‘Maz’ Leslie living up to his expectations in one sweet 16 season

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The last defenseman the Vancouver Giants picked in the first round of the WHL Draft before Mazden Leslie was Bowen Byram.

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Byram, who was the No. 3 overall selection in 2016, went on to lead the Giants to the 2019 Western Hockey League championship series. He is one of the best players the franchise has ever developed.

Leslie, 16, who was the No. 10 overall choice in 2020, is just finishing his first full season with the Giants. He has been one of the bright spots with the club this year. He had looked right at home as an underage call-up even last spring, and has shown a penchant for pushing the play offensively since his first few shifts with Vancouver.

Even with that first-round draft status and that logical link to Byram, Leslie says he doesn’t feel any added pressure. He does believe there are expectations. To him, the difference is that pressure comes from other sources while expectations are internal.

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“Expectations are about living up to what you think you can be and not what other people think you can be,” Leslie said.

Giants coach Michael Dyck maintains that it’s unfair to compare Leslie to Byram or any other former Giants defensemen — “Maz is going to be Maz,” Dyck said — and he isn’t worried about Leslie getting caught up in doing that either.

Leslie has had to adjust to the league already, according to Dyck. Leslie scored five goals in 17 games as a 15-year-old in the BC Division hub season last spring. That was living in a hotel and playing in empty rinks in only Kamloops and Kelowna. It was a “watered-down version of what this league can be,” to borrow a phrase from Dyck.

Playing in front of fans and traveling regularly and attending school has been a change and, to hear Dyck tell it, Leslie’s game has steadily improved this season.

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He has three goals and 15 points in 56 games so far this season.

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“It was a challenge and for him to figure it out in the first half has allowed him to have the success he’s been having in the second half,” Dyck said of Leslie, a 6-foot-1, 182-pound right-shot rearguard from Lloydminster, Alta.

“He has some great offensive instincts. He’s starting to play with lots of confidence right now. He’s starting to play better defensively.

“I think he’s going to be a very good two-way defenseman in this league that will be able to quarterback our power play at some point. More than anything, he’ll be that really good, two-way guy.”

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Leslie is regularly the first player at the rink for morning practices and Dyck talks about “his passion for the game,” and how Leslie “loves to be on the ice.”

He wants to improve. Part of improving is studying other players, and one of the guys he has watched film on is Byram, 20, both from when Byram was with the Giants and in the NHL with the Colorado Avalanche. Byram hasn’t played with Colorado since Jan. 10 due to concussion issues, but he has been back practicing with the team of late.

“I look at a lot of defensemen and try to take some of what they do into my game,” said Leslie, who named Byram’s Avalanche teammate Cale Makar as well as the Dallas Stars’ Miro Heiskanen and Rasmus Dahlin of the Buffalo Sabers as others he keeps a particular eye on.

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The WHL doesn’t release detailed stats like the NHL does, but it does feel like Leslie is recording more takeaways, blocking more shots and laying more bodychecks than he was earlier in the season. He believes his defensive game has improved as well, but admits there’s still more to go in that regard, too.

“I’m getting more comfortable and more confident,” Leslie said.

Leslie’s 2020 WHL Draft class has flourished as a group, led by No. 1 overall selection Connor Bedard, the North Vancouver center with the Regina Pats. Bedard, who was fifth in league scoring with 84 points as of Wednesday morning, is one of six 2005-born players with at least 50 points. The league hasn’t had six 16 year olds hit 50 points in the same season since 1984-85.

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Underage call-ups can normally play only five regular season games in a season under league rules, but Leslie and other 15 year olds got that chance last spring because minor hockey shut down due to COVID-19 and the WHL season didn’t start until March.

The Giants went with a defenseman with the first-round pick in the 2021 WHL Draft as well, taking Colton Roberts with the No. 11 selection. He has played three games with Vancouver so far this season.

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