Dallas Eakins once thought Matt Frattin was finished as a hockey player. Now Frattin comes into Maple Leafs rookie camp in Oshawa with a chance to make the big team by opening night.

No one is under the microscope at this four-team tournament more so than Frattin — the only player on the Leaf rookie squad to have played a game in the NHL, and the only one singled out by GM Brian Burke as being ready to challenge for a spot.

That might sound like pressure to some. Not to Frattin.

“It’s a sign that things I’ve been doing last year and through the summer, that (Burke) thinks I’ve been doing the right things,” said Frattin, “and that I can be taking that spot after training camp if I keep doing the right things.”

Frattin’s been doing the right things for some time, after a summer of doing many things wrong.

Frattin’s well-told story of drinking-related hijinks — which got him arrested in the summer of 2009 and suspended from his college program — is far behind him now, but follows him everywhere.

A humbled Frattin lost his scholarship, but returned to North Dakota to resume playing hockey. Gaining the trust of his coach, he led the NCAA in goals last year and was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, a trophy awarded to the top college hockey player in the United States.

“It’s an inspirational story,” said Eakins, the Marlies coach running the Leaf rookie camp. “A lot of times when a kid gets himself into trouble and makes a couple of bad decisions, gets suspended by his team, they usually disappear and we don’t talk about them again. They’re gone.

“This kid went home, got a job, saw how tough it was to work every day. He missed his teammates, he missed school, and now here he is, he could very well challenge for a spot with the Maple Leafs.

“I’m glad to see him here. To be honest when he got into trouble, I thought he was done.”

Now 23, Frattin was the Leafs’ fourth-round pick, 99th overall, in 2007. He is definitely bigger, stronger and wiser than his teenaged teammates. He’s the most likely player to follow the likes of Luke Schenn, Jonas Gustavsson and Viktor Stalberg — all of whom made the leap in recent years from rookie camp to opening night in the same autumn.

Of course, Frattin’s got a leg up, having played the final game of the season with the Leafs against the Montreal Canadiens. Frattin had some jump right from the start, and the puck seemed to follow him around. He played wing with Tyler Bozak and Nazem Kadri. There seemed to be some chemistry between Kadri and Frattin.

“I felt I played pretty good,” Frattin said of the game. “It was more of a building block, get to meet some guys.”

Frattin moved to Toronto in August, found a place to live and has been working out at the MasterCard Centre with the rest of the Leafs for a couple of weeks. He’s starting to feel at home.

“He’s a confident kid,” Eakins said of Frattin. “He carries that confidence well. He doesn’t come off cocky.

“He knows he’s just starting to climb up the first summit. He’s got to get to a number of summits before he can get to top. He understands the process.”

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He’s not bothered knowing all eyes are on him.

“They’ve been watching me for the last four years in college,” said Frattin. “Even in my junior year, so that’s five years. They already know how I can play. I’ve just got to go out there and do it.”

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