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TORONTO — Elias Pettersson has a fan in Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock.

And while it doesn’t appear Vancouver’s phenom will play when the Canucks visit Toronto on Saturday night, like much of the hockey world, Babcock has been taken aback by Pettersson’s rookie season.

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“He’s smarter than everybody else, so he can stand still and create space,” Babcock said after the Leafs practised on Friday. “You can say lots of things about him — he doesn’t look like he’s that strong. He just has the puck the whole time.

“Everybody keeps backing off, so he has space and he can shoot it and he can pass it and he sees it. He looks like a real player to me.”

Pettersson was set to undergo an MRI on Friday after suffering an injury to his right knee a night earlier in Montreal’s 2-0 victory over Vancouver when he got tied up with Canadiens rookie Jesperi Kotkaniemi.

The Canucks tweeted there is no timetable for their top scorer’s return.