This year’s Prospect Tournament is here, and for the second year in a row it will be hosted by Montreal. This year, however, there will be other teams involved other than just Toronto and Montreal – Ottawa and Winnipeg will be making it a mini-Canada Kid Cup.

Details of the tournament itself are here, but the important bits are: Toronto’s roster will face the Ottawa lads on September 13th at 1:00 pm, and then will play Montreal’s boyos the next day on September 14th also at 1:00 pm.

The most important bit, of course, is who Toronto will be bringing and today we found that out:

As I like to do with these, here’s some random thoughts about players included in the roster – both those already drafted/signed by Toronto, signed to an AHL deal, or invited to participate without any current contract (spoiler: there’s only one of them).

Rather than me listing out all the players, I have some themes in mind for thoughts and interesting story lines I will be following.

Toronto Has a Centre Type

The four likely (to me) centres on this roster are, in no real order, Quillan, Haymes, Hopkins and Holinka. Maybe they switch someone out for the second game, and they could put in Kressler or Pharand. Regardless, I don’t know if you noticed but I sure did, those main four could almost be cut from the same cloth.

All four are, first and foremost, two-way centres, whose calling cards are for being responsible defensively and doing the little things really well to push the play in the right direction.

There’s little differences that make them a bit unique, mind you. Haymes is more of a grinder and power-based goal scorer. Quillan is more of a smooth, cerebral play-driver. Hopkins is more of a speedy playmaker. Holinka is a crafty sniper with some nifty mittens. The games Toronto plays may not be high scoring or full of flashy skill you may usually associate with a top prospects exhibition, but they’ll be pretty annoying for those kinds of not fully mature skill guys to play against. Especially since three of the four are on the older side.

Who Will Play With Cowan?

Toronto has one clear top player on this year’s roster. In the past two years, he made up a duo with Minten both times. Last year, they were joined by Greb. Both are gone from the organization now (sigh) and Toronto doesn’t really have the same sort of prospect at that level or age right now.

In the past, Toronto has really liked to load up their top guys. So if I were to guess, Cowan will have either Quillan or Haymes at centre. They’re both older, farther along in their development, and I’ve already guessed that one of the two will be Cowan’s centre on the Marlies. He may swap who he plays with between both games to get each as a trial. Personally? I like his stylistic fit with Haymes a bit more, but Quillan wouldn’t be far behind either.

For his other winger, Valis for his size, age and style could work well in the gaps that Cowan’s play style has. Those two with Haymes would be a hilariously annoying forechecking trio to deal with.

What Lesser Known Prospect Will Shine?

In past years, guys like Holinka, Quillan, Hirvonen, McCleary, Niemelä and Tverberg were standouts to me. So… hit and miss on whether standing out in a prospect exhibition means anything lol.

But, it’s always fun to see who already looks like they’re one step into a breakout season. There are three guys from the most recent draft who I’m curious about. First is Tyler Hopkins, who has the aforementioned reputation as a defensive centre but I want to see a) how well that holds up against two prospect rosters much deeper in NHL drafted talent, and b) if he can start showing more flashes of offensive ability. The other is Harry Nansi, who I’m not expecting that much from just yet given how much of a long-term project he will be, but I’d love to see if his skating has already taken a step and if his brain and play style make him standout more.

There are two older prospects who I’m a bit curious to see as well. Sam McCue is a guy who scores goals, plays an annoying and physical style, but doesn’t do enough to drive play in other ways… yet. I want to see if he’s adding any more of that into his game from his work this summer. I’ve seen flashes, but it has to become a committed, consistent thing at this point. The other is Nathan Mayes, who I thought had a pretty big leap in his play last year… the problem is how far he had to come from, so he’s still in need of another big leap.

The Marlies Prospects

Since Toronto doesn’t draft many prospects these days, they’ve also brought a handful of AHL/ECHL contract guys to fill out the roster. Some of them are newer and interesting to me, others are not – Barbolini is a good veteran for the Marlies, but he’s not much. Landon Sim was Cowan’s teammate on London for three years and could be entertaining if you like rat-type players but I’m expecting even less from him. Parsons is a defenseman who was in the ECHL for the entire season last year, had 100+ penalty minutes, no points or offense, and the one thing I have seen of him was when got into a fight with Hlacar at their development camp this summer. Enough said.

The one forward I am interested by is Kirwan, who was just signed after his college season ended in the spring. He wasn’t good enough to get an NHL contract, but his type as a big, good skating, sniper guy with some physical edge and a hint of two-way ability sounded intriguing, so I’ll be getting my first look of him here.

The one defenseman who is somewhat interesting is Chas Sharpe, because he was so good offensively last season for the ECHL team who was very not good – especially offensively. He got a bit of a call up to the Marlies at the end of the season, but I want to see how good the offense actually is against actually good prospects, and if there’s anything to his defensive or transition game to make me think he could be something as a project.

The No-Contract Invites

The last thing I’m mostly interested in are the two players Toronto invited to the roster who were not drafted and (currently) do not have any kind of contract – NHL, AHL, ECHL, European, whatever. Last year, Ryan McCleary was one such invite and he wound up with an AHL deal from Toronto. This year, the two players who will be playing real hard to get that same shot are Alex Pharand and Owen Conrad, who were both invites to Toronto’s development camp this summer.

Pharand is a 6’3″, 192 lb centre who turns 21 in January. He was drafted by Chicago in the fourth round in the 2023 NHL draft, but wasn’t signed. He’s never been a point per game player in the OHL, but has a reputation for being the kind of guy coaches love – plays disciplined, hard backcheck, defensively reliable (in junior at least), and is strong along the boards. That kind of guy with his size and little details is the kind of guy I can see getting an AHL deal, but we’ll see how he can manage against top prospects and established AHLers.

The most interesting one to me is Owen Conrad. He was a special call out to me when I was profiling the Leafs’ development camp roster this summer, and I wrote about him as a potential late round draft option before that. What I said back then is still true now, but I am liking the opportunity to see him now – even if he only likely gets one game. He can be this year’s Ryan McCleary, and while I couldn’t see him at all at the development camp since they didn’t have a broadcasted scrimmage like in previous years, he did get one or two little call outs during all the interviews with players and Wickenheiser.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

Rapid fire, in no order of importance just as they come to mind:

Is Hlacar more than just a face puncher? Time to show whatever else it is you have, kid.Can Chadwick look like more of a positive standout this year compared to past rookie tournaments?How will Danford fare against the likes of true top prospects like Ivan Demidov?Can Akhtyamov look ready for a breakout AHL season, or Peska look like he’ll stick around past this year?Thanks for reading!

I put a lot of work into my prospect articles here, both for the draft and Toronto’s prospects. I do it as a fun hobby for me, and I’d probably do it in some capacity even if PPP completely ceased to exist. But if you like reading my work, some support would go a long way! I pay for a few streaming services (CHL, NCAA, USHL, the occasional TSN options for international tournaments that are broadcast) to be able to reliably watch these prospects in good quality streams. I also pay for some prospect-specific resources, such as tracking data and scouting reports from outlets like Elite Prospects, Future Considerations, McKeen’s Hockey, The Athletic, and more.

Being able to get paid for this helps me dedicate more time and resources to it, rather than to second/third jobs. And whatever money I make here, a lot of I reinvest back into my prospect work through in those streaming and scouting services. Like I said, I’d be doing whatever I can afford for this anyway, so any financial help I get through this is greatly appreciated!