It’s a slab of a face, a hockey face, with an assortment of nicks and scrapes and abrasions.

So a reporter asks about the nose.

“Been broken?”

Andreas Borgman: “No.”

Oh. Sorry. Except the thing looks like it has been flattened a few times, thick across the bridge and cleaving to the left. Born that way, huh?

A reasonable assumption, though, that Borgman would have a contact-distorted proboscis, the way he plays: Physical, hit-thumping. Hard-nosed.

Looks the part, too, at a muscular and tattooed six-foot and 210 pounds; built like a fireplug.

The Swedish 22-year-old, bidding for a job on the Maple Leafs blue line, proved himself as advertised the other night, making his second exhibition appearance against Buffalo. Stepped into Evan Rodrigues with a clean shoulder BOOM along the boards as the rookie forward attempted to penetrate the Toronto zone. Rodrigues immediately departed with an undisclosed injury. Mostly he got his brain pan rattled.

Leo Komarov has been impressed. “I didn’t know he was a hitter until I saw his stuff out there. But look at the way he’s built. I first noticed it in the dressing room — he’s big. He’s going to be a good hitter because he’s strong.”

And Komarov, banger of record on the Leafs roster, would certainly know whereof he speaks. This is a guy who clears his head at the morning skate by repeatedly throwing himself into the glass. “It’s how I wake up. I bitch-slap myself.”

It’s been a long time since Swedes were regarded as slick but soft. A roll of the eyes by Borgman. “Look at Kronwall.”

Niklas Kronwall, feared as an open-ice hitter with the Red Wings, who’s turned “being Kronwalled” into a compound verb.

“I kind of liked it,” explains Borgman of his early enticement by the body-slamming dimension of hockey. “You learn when you’re little. The more you try it, the better you get at it.”

While Borgman received mixed reviews for his performance on Friday night at Ricoh Coliseum — got into some out-of-position trouble at both ends of the ice — the splattering of Rodrigues is already gaining eyeballs on YouTube, his first GIF on this side of the Atlantic. He’s opening a few eyes as well among hockey observers around the team for the ferocity he packs into his game. It’s a quality the skill-rich Leafs can use.

There’s a slopping dollop of Swedish presence on Toronto’s training camp slate. Top 2017 draft pick Timothy Liljegren, a teenager who will likely be returned to Sweden for another year; forwards Carl Grundstrom and Andreas Johnsson, the former having drawn quite a few words of praise from coach Mike Babcock; Marlies winger Tobias Lindberg; and the free agent defence tandem of Borgman and Calle Rosen, both who’d gone undrafted, both signed by Toronto in May.

Borgman was passed over despite being listed as the 36th-best skater out of Europe in the 2013 draft by Central Scouting. But he’s made huge strides recently, generating belated interest from NHL clubs. Following a commendable 2015-16 campaign with Vasteras IK in his country’s second-tier league, he matriculated to HV71 in the prime-time Swedish Hockey League, winning rookie-of-the-year laurels last season, then burnishing his bona fides with 10 points in 14 post-season games, a key component in his club emerging as league champion.

But naturally he pined for the NHL.

“It’s pretty easy to understand that. It’s the big league, so you want to be here.’’

Growing up in Stockholm, he’d watched Mats Sundin highlights as a kid. Borje Salming was, and remains, a national icon, though Borgman admits more beloved by his parents’ generation. “He’s still got a big profile over there. He’s on TV a lot.’’

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Personally, he was most in thrall to Nicklas Lidstrom, almost speechlessly in awe when invited back to Lidstrom’s home by the hall of famer’s son, Adam, when they were teammates in Vasteras.

“The first time I met him and said ‘hi Nicklas,’ it was a pretty weird feeling. I mean, this was Nicklas Lidstrom, you know what he’s done. But whenever I’ve been at his house, he’s just like anybody’s dad. When I was signed (by Toronto), he congratulated me, said I was going to enjoy it.”

They’ve talked more about life in the NHL than hockey.

When Borgman came to Toronto with Rosen for a couple of weeks in the spring, he indulged in the “tourist” pursuits, the Hockey Hall of Fame high on his must-see list.

“It’s a big move to make here. You leave all your friends and family at home. But it’s been my dream my whole life, to get over here and get a chance to play in the National Hockey League.”

Now, in the midst of training camp, it’s all hockey-hockey-hockey and trying to make a good keeper impression. The transition demands immediate adjustments — to rink size and the breathtaking speed of the NHL game. “It’s a little difficult with some of the angles and stuff like this. It’s a (bigger) surface, so you don’t get as much time as at home. There you can skate more with the puck. Here you almost have to give it away right away, try to make fast plays instead of skating with the puck.’’

There are precious few spots open on this Leafs team. Defence, however, has been a weakness. The top two pairings — Morgan Rielly with veteran acquisition Ron Hainsey, Jake Gardiner with Nikita Zaitsev — appear set. Competition is fierce for the third pairing and a seventh depth D from among a group that includes Connor Carrick, Martin Marincin and don’t forget the prohibitively tough Roman Polak.

The Leafs like the two-way capabilities of Borgman and Rosen and their fortunes seem to have risen.

Borgman, a left-handed shot, has been yoked with 22-year-old Travis Dermott, an agile and physically strong second-rounder from 2015 with an edge who, after a season with the Marlies, might be ready to take the next step.

“We’re just going to keep watching these guys and play them as much as we can,” Babcock said Saturday, addressing the battle for the third pairing. “I’m looking at Carrick, I’m looking at Rosen, I’m looking at Dermott and Marincin and Borgman. I’m watching them all, but I’m watching them individually, not so much as a pair.

“Borgman is a physical guy who is a bigger man than most of our guys on the back. He is really evasive. We have to help him understand how we play, and his stick, but he does lots of really good things that we can teach easy. We can’t teach 227, or whatever he is.”

That’s 210, coach, as in poundage.

“He’s strong as an ox.”

In Swedish, that would be oxe.