He’s got a smile that should be featured on a dentist’s office poster or an orthodontist’s ad.
And it’s ever-present.
But there were times when smiling must have been tough for Matt Bradley.
For example, in the spring of 2016 he was in line to join the Montreal Canadiens’ American Hockey League farm team, the St. John’s IceCaps, at the conclusion of his junior campaign with the Western Hockey League’s Medicine Hat Tigers.
“But in the second-last game of the season, I separated my shoulder,” said Bradley, who had been a fifth-round draft pick of the Canadiens in 2015. “That kept me from coming up here and that was a real disappointment, because I was looking forward to it.”
Bradley has finally made it to St. John’s, but this time as part of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ organization. The 21-year-old from Surrey, B.C., is in the training camp of the Newfoundland Growlers after having signed an AHL deal with Toronto earlier this year.
He never came to terms with Montreal , and a large part of that can be probably attributed to injuries.
It’s a story of bad luck linking hands with bad timing, with medical issue that occurred in — or carried over into — the off-season, when the Habs would be doing up-close assessments of their prospect group.
“I battled a couple of injuries while I was (in the Canadiens system),” said Bradley. “I probably missed two or three camps and that didn’t help.”
There had been another shoulder injury and a broken nose that led to the discovery of a golf ball-sized tumor — benign as it thankfully turned out — growing inside his sinus cavity.
“They figure I was born with it (the tumour), but then I broke my nose and it kept growing continuously. And after five months, I couldn’t breathe out of that side of my nose at all,” he recalled.
“At first, it was put down to swelling and inflammation, but after it became very bad, I saw a specialist and found out what was really going on.”
Surgery to remove the tumour made a huge difference, but then as luck — or in Bradley’s case, persistent misfortune — would have it, he broke the nose again.
But the smile was still there.
Even when it was tough.
Like in June of 2017, when the Canadiens decided against signing him to an entry-level contract, and he was later passed over as a re-entry candidate for the NHL Draft.
But that sort of turned into another opportunity, this time as an overage junior when the Tigers traded him to the Regina Pats , who were hosting the 2018 Memorial Cup.
He had 79 points in 73 games for the Pats, who were upset in a seven-game series in the first round of the WHL playoffs.
That led to a long wait until the Memorial Cup, but the Pats didn’t show a lot of rust in the championship tournament, going all the way to the final, before losing to Newfoundlanders Adam Holwell, Jordan Maher and Evan Fitzpatrick and the rest of the QMJHL champion Acadie-Bathurst Titan.
It was during that down time before the Memorial Cup that the Leafs offered the AHL deal to Bradley.
“I knew a little bit (about Toronto’s interest) during the season,” said Bradley, who had been talking to Maple Leafs scout and former Pats scoring whiz Dale Derkatch. “Right before the Memorial Cup, they contacted me and offered a contract and I jumped all over it.”
The 6-foot, 195-pound Bradley, who averaged over 60 points a year over four seasons in the WHL, is — like so many of the Growlers forwards in camp — quick on his feet and in possession of a high in-game motor. As a junior centre, he was adept at face-offs and lauded for his hockey smarts.
“Fast, skilled forward. I can make plays, but I can play physical,” he answered when some self-scouting was requested.
Mind you, he is no Matt Bradley.
That would be former NHLer Matt Bradley, who played almost 700 big-league games, primarily with the San Jose Sharks and Washington Capitals
Despite an almost 20-year age difference, people still ask him if he’s that Matt Bradley.
“Not so much in the past, more after I came east (for Leafs and Marlies off-season camps). Everyone keeps bringing it up … No, that’s not me.”
And oh, yes, Matt Bradley the Younger offered one more line of personal assessment.
“I’m always smiling out there.”
Twitter: @telybrendan
