Toronto Maple Leafs Will Not Sign Three Mark Hunter Picks

Under Kyle Dubas, the Toronto Maple Leafs only continue to make moves that are seemingly for the purpose of edging themselves farther away from the regimes of the past.

Yesterday’s news is no different.

According to a report from The Nation Network’s Jacob Stoller last night, the Maple Leafs are not expected to sign defence prospect, Fedor Gordeev or forward prospects, Ryan McGregor and Dakota Joshua to Entry-Level Contracts before their rights expire following the June 1st deadline. In light of this development, all three players will then become unrestricted free agents and will be granted the ability to sign with any of the 30 other NHL teams.

The report is relatively unsurprising.

Both Gordeev and McGregor were late-round picks (Gordeev in the 5th and McGregor in the 6th) of a 2017 Toronto draft class that steadily dwindles in hindsight by the day. That draft happened to fall under the vision of then-Maple Leafs assistant GM, Mark Hunter, who has since left the team upon Kyle Dubas‘s promotion to the GM post last May. Of the seven selections Hunter made in that draft, only two are currently signed under ELCs – first rounder Timothy Liljegren, who was a no-brainer, and fourth-rounder Ian Scott – while the other five are either yet to be signed by the Maple Leafs or had their rights forfeited by the organization.

Nearly every pick from that draft, outside of Liljegren and Scott, has yet to show any signs of NHL potential. Even after Eemeli Rasanen, Toronto’s 2017 second-round pick, joined the Toronto Marlies on a PTO in mid-March of this year, he was then summarily released from his tryout, after putting forth one point in five regular season games, in order to re-sign with Jokerit of the KHL, where he played a scant 12 games this season.

Rasanen currently plays for Kiekko-Vanta of Mestis, Finland’s second-tier professional league.

As for the trio of unsigned prospects, the odds of either Gordeev or McGregor being inked to ELCs always seemed slim. Both players consistently struggled to produce offensively at the Junior level, and only appeared to truly round into form in their overage seasons. Even more telling, neither player was brought into the Marlies on an amateur tryout deal after their OHL seasons ended, which is the typical mode of practice with the organization’s prospects. McGregor only received an ATO this year, going pointless in four games.

Joshua, on the other hand, was a 5th round selection of Toronto’s back in 2014. The towering centre then opted to travel the NCAA route in lieu of the Junior circuit, spending the past four years at Ohio State to varying results. Joshua is a player with talent, as many scouts will attest to, but has also been described in the past as a “kick-in-the-butt” kid due to some maturity issues.

After managing just 22 points in 32 games in his Senior year at Ohio State, the Maple Leafs apparently don’t feel that Joshua warrants a contract spot, at least for the moment.

It will be interesting to see whether any of these players remain within the organization via an AHL deal with the Marlies, or seek opportunities elsewhere.