Travis Dermott had a dream similar to many children who grew up in the backyard of the Maple Leafs. And he would pepper his father with a question heard around the Greater Toronto Area.



“What are the chances, you think, I make the NHL? Like, what do I gotta do?”



His father, Jim, had a mantra: “You gotta work hard.”



It wasn’t until two seasons into his junior hockey career that Travis Dermott actually thought it was possible he could make the NHL. It was after his sophomore season with the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters, when his teammates and opponents began getting drafted into the NHL that Dermott began to believe he could be, too.



He knew was better than some of them. If they were getting scooped up why couldn’t he?



How he rose to the brink of making the opening-day Maple Leafs roster, however, is a story that has gone largely untold.



Dermott wouldn’t be en route to the NHL,...