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Last spring, the Leafs signed Borja Valis to an ELC. He’s an undrafted overager out of the WHL, most recently playing wing for the Prince George Cougars. The American joined the Toronto Marlies for two games at the end of last year and we’ll get to see what he can do in a full season in the AHL next year. As an overager in junior, Valis comes to the Marlies already at the age of 21 and will be 22 by the end of next season, meaning he doesn’t have as much room to grow as teenagers who come to pro. Regardless, there is potential for him to add/fix/adjust parts of his game to meet the pro level. The key factor for Valis will be how well he can adapt to the pro game.

Borya Valis
Vitals

Age as of July 1
21.23

Position
F

Height
6’2″

Weight (lbs)
192

Shoots
R

Draft Year
Undrafted

Draft Number
NA

The Player

I would like to start by directing your eyes to Brigstew’s excellent profile on Valis when he was signed. Brigs took a lot of time to watch Valis and relay what he discovered in very clear detail. In his profile he talks about Valis being a good passer and a good off-puck forechecker. He also discusses his lack of explosiveness in his skating and his puck handling needing work. Instead of repeating Brigs, I’m going to discuss what those features to Valis’s game will mean for his transition to the AHL and where he might be able to go from there.

Getting to Know Borya Valis

Let’s all get to know Toronto’s newest prospect, his strengths as a power forward with strong off-puck play and what his development path needs to be for him to make the NHL.

Let’s start with the “power forward” aspect to his profile. That part of his game in the WHL looks to me as being a result of Valis being older and bigger than his opponents. As a 21-year-old he faced players who were younger and less physically matured than him. I saw Valis force his way into dangerous locations, often without much pushback from the defenders. He’ll have to try different things or be stronger than pro defenders in order to achieve the same things in the AHL.

As an aside, I’ve found myself very disappointed in the level of defending in junior hockey, especially when I compared Ben Danford to William Villeneuve. A lot of defenders in the clips I’ve watched for Hopkins, Valis, Nansi, McCue, and others just let forwards take space. They don’t make it hard to be in front of the net. Body positioning falls away and it’s just reaching and poking a lot of the time. Pro is a very different game (always has been) and it becomes a big wake-up call for young forwards coming out of junior. I’m really excited about Danford because he fights for every metre and he is smart about how to defend.

Connecting that back to Valis, I think he has the skills to attack the slot or win battles along the boards, it’ll just take a renewed effort compared to the relatively easier time as an overager in the WHL. I like his passing ability. It shows me that he’s thinking with the puck. Against AHL opponents who are faster and on you quicker, being able to think quickly can cover for disadvantaged foot speed.

My projection on Valis that depends on how he adapts to pro hockey. It’ll all come down to whether he buys in to developing towards less flashy skills, or tries to run through the proverbial wall (ala Nick “Leeroy Jenkins” Robertson).

We can be optimistic if Valis puts on some weight (only 192 lbs at 6’2” and 21 years old at last measurement) and gives himself a better chance to get to the areas he wants to go. He doesn’t necessarily need foot speed, but a combination of strength and elusiveness by hiding from defenders and timing runs. If he can clean up his skating, I would really like to see him improve his transition game through the zones. This is something Brigs was also concerned about. If Valis isn’t going to be a top-six player, he can carve out a job on an NHL bottom six with strong systems execution.

How to monitor improvements like this isn’t by seeing Valis moving up the lineup on the Marlies. You might not remember but Bobby McMann was only ever a third- or fourth-liner on the Marlies before he got called up to the Leafs. He was never on my radar for that reason. If Valis can carve out an AHL job as a transitioning winger who can play smart (or with smart players), he can create arguments for an NHL job.

The Votes

We all had Valis in our top 25, with Shinson ranking him highest at #11 and Adam putting him at #21. I was right in the middle at #16, in line with his weighted average so I hope I was able to provide a balanced take on this player. Overall, I found Valis to have the pieces to be a capable pro, but without evidence that those parts exist in his game (yet). Depending on where you settle on those two sides, I think this ranking is quite good.

Voter
Vote

Cathy
13

Brigstew
13

Species
18

Hardev
16

shinson93
11

Cameron
18

Zone Entry
12

Svalbard38
17

dhammm
20

adam
21

Weighted Average
15.9

Highest Vote
11

Lowest Vote
21

The Opinions

And here is what the voters said about Borya Valis.

Brigstew: This is right around where I had Valis, and it makes sense for him. He had a strong junior career, he’s got an interesting power game. I’m not sure how well he’s going to do right away in the AHL, especially since they will be pretty deep in terms of other early 20’s prospects (Cowan, Haymes, Quillan, Kirwan, King, Fontaine) joining the team at the same time, and all the veteran pros they’ll also have (Boyd, Shaw, Johnstone, Nylander, Paré, Barbolini, Lettieri). If he’s going to be a legit NHL prospect, even if his potential is only as a depth guy, he’s going to need to carve out a depth-like role for himself among that competition. Kill penalties, defend well, be reliable with the puck, be hard on the forecheck, create chaos in the offensive zone. Be someone the coaches want to put out on the ice.Shinson93:  Valis is interesting as an American that chose the WHL over the USHL/NCAA route.  He joined the Marlies at the end of last year after a strong junior campaign, but was kind of invisible.  I think he might take a bit longer to adjust to the physicality of AHL game, but he has the skills and play style that could eventually break through.  He’ll need to prove that he should be in the lineup every night and not get frustrated when he isn’t.dhammm: I don’t think there’s anything a 20-year-old CHLer can really do to excite me beyond not being in the CHL to begin with, but taking a closer look at his profile makes me think I ranked him lower than I should have. At least, I should have had him a few spots up with Luke Haymes.Svalbard38: Valis is a guy I really liked in his playoff series. He’s got a good shot, he’s good at getting the puck off of the opponent, he’s a bit greasy, and he put up solid numbers. There’s a lot to like there. That said though, that’s what you should expect from a junior player in his D+3 season, especially one you signed as a D+3 junior player.Cathy: I thought Valis looked like an AHLer, and I ranked him on the high end of the players I think tap out there. So better than SDA, but not a lot.

So, did we get this ranking right? Where did you personally rank Valis and would you change your vote after reading this? Thank you for reading!

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