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Devin Setoguchi comes to Maple Leafs with right attitude after 'wrong turn'

Devin Setoguchi comes to Maple Leafs with right attitude after 'wrong turn'

Devin Setoguchi can weigh himself in the morning and not feel bad anymore.

The Toronto Maple Leafs forward now tips the scales at just under 200 pounds, which is a milestone for him.

“I haven’t been under 200 pounds in probably nine years,” he said in a candid interview with the Brady and Walker show on Sportsnet 590 in Toronto.

The 28-year-old forward, who signed a PTO with Toronto, admitted he entered rehab last April. Is he ready to rediscover the form that saw him score 31 goals in 2008-09 with the San Jose Sharks? He says he has a clear mind and he’s ready to move forward with his life on and off the ice.

“Around the league my rep the last couple of years and my word hasn’t really meant much. I had gotten to the point where I had pretty much diminished any kind of merit in the league,” Setoguchi said. “No one really believed what I was saying, so I still have a lot to prove this year.”

Setoguchi said he had the wrong attitude the last several years in the league. After he got his first big deal, a three-year $9 million contract from 2011-12 through 2013-14, he intimated the wheels came off a bit.

“Then you get really confused and cocky and overconfident in what you do,” he said.  “Your attitude is not where it should be. That was something that hit me. Then obviously along the way got into some bad decisions and hanging out with the wrong people.”

Setoguchi said he took a “wrong turn” and then “Once I took that turn and knew it, I was in denial of it and it was everyone else’s problem.”

He signed a one-year $750,000 contract with Calgary for this past season, and says he told the team he was sober.

“That lasted all of a couple of weeks,” he added.

Setoguchi also said he had a “crappy attitude” with the Flames. He played 12 games with Calgary and didn’t notch a point.

Over the last three years his career has taken him from the NHL to the ECHL with the Ontario Reign in 2012-13 to the AHL with the Abbotsford Heat in 2014-15. With a fresh outlook, the newly married Setoguchi hopes he can make the Maple Leafs happy with the opportunity they’re giving him.

He said he enjoyed playing in the structured system of former Sharks coach Todd McLellan while both were in San Jose. Since McLellan is a Mike Babcock disciple – and Babs is the Toronto coach –  it was a logical fit.

“They’re trying to do something there and turn that team into a great franchise,” Setoguchi said. “Not that it isn’t already, but that’s someone I’d like to (join) and push for moving forward.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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