Kerby Rychel is like most Maple Leafs prospects — polite and very anxious to earn a spot on a Toronto roster continuing a trend from last season where young players will be thrust into the NHL spotlight to see if they belong.

Rychel, though, is going through the “young gun” phase of his career for a second time, as he joins dozens of regulars and prospects in daily workouts this week at the MasterCard Centre, ahead of the opening of training camp later this month.

The 21-year-old is coming off a trying 2015-16 with Columbus, where his career failed to launch, prompting a trade request and a silver lining in a Calder Cup championship with the Lake Erie Monsters.

“They (Leafs) told me to come to camp in great shape and just be ready to play,” said Rychel, who was dealt to Toronto on June 25 for defenceman Scott Harrington and a conditional draft pick in 2017 (a fifth-rounder if Rychel is placed on waivers).

“You look at all the young talent here now, and all the guys who have played in the league and make you feel comfortable being here, and you know it’s an opportunity you want as a player.”

Drafted in the first round, 19th overall, in 2013 by the Blue Jackets, he was considered the organization’s top prospect at the time. But opportunities to play with top-six forwards never fully materialized, leading to a pair of shortened, uninspiring stints in the NHL.

Rychel appeared in five NHL games — with three assists — in 2014-15, and followed that up with two goals and seven assists in 32 games last season.

Rychel’s status as a top-six forward came to a crossroads last September, when his agent, Kurt Overhardt, and his father, Warren, a former Leaf who played eight NHL seasons and part-owner of the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires, approached Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen to discuss the matter.

That meeting was arranged for the annual prospects tourney in Traverse City, Mich., and the two parties had a heated exchange in plain view of fans attending the tourney, prompting a trade demand soon after.

“I was happy to be drafted in the NHL by Columbus,” said Rychel, one of Kekalainen’s three first-round picks in his first draft as Columbus GM.

“I was in the organization for two years, but getting traded to an organization (Leafs) so deep in young talent is good for me.”

Rychel’s 32 games in the NHL last season were spent primarily with bottom-six forwards, resulting in low production and possession figures. His scored only six goals with Lake Erie, but his more impressive assists total (21) showed promise that, given better linemates, he could produce better numbers, and make other players better.

A trade to Toronto has Rychel excited to start afresh and play with an organization with potential for a long-term upside.

He’s gained experience through his ordeal, and through his father’s advice and teachings — but he’s learned mostly to rely on himself.

“He (father) was telling me I could be a pro from a young age,” Rychel said. “When you get to be 17 and 18, you figure it out for yourself. We still talk a lot (with his father), but not so much about hockey anymore.”

With training camp about to open, Rychel has been in Toronto all summer, working with skating coach Barb Underhill and skills coach Mike Ellis.

Rychel, while having more NHL experience than Leaf prospect gems like Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, still faces the same uphill battle for ice time he saw in Columbus.

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Matthews and Marner are all but a certainty to start this season in the NHL as teenagers. Established, top-shelf prospects like William Nylander, Nikita Soshnikov, Zach Hyman, Connor Brown, Tobias Lindberg, Kasperi Kapanen and others, only steepen Rychel’s challenge for an NHL job.

“I’ve played most the last two years in the AHL, but the time I had in the NHL, I feel I know what it takes to get there,” Rychel said.