Toronto Maple Leafs Announce 2019 Development Camp Roster

The Toronto Maple Leafs are not done adding to their prospect pool quite yet.

After a thoroughly busy two days at the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, the Maple Leafs have now shifted their focus towards the future, announcing today the full list of players who are set to attend their development camp beginning in full tomorrow.

All in all, most of the usual suspects are there.

The entirety of Toronto’s draft class from over the weekend – save for fourth-rounder Mikhail Abramov – are locked in as participants, along with recently drafted prospects such as Semyon Der-Arguchintsev, Riley Stotts, Mac Hollowell, Filip Kral, and Ryan O’Connell, among others, joining as well.

Kicking off with a full on-ice session on Tuesday, the camp will also provide fans with their first glimpse at new Leafs assistant coach, Paul McFarland, in action. Coming over from the Florida Panthers in late-May, McFarland will be overseeing the event’s operations alongside Toronto Marlies head coach, Sheldon Keefe.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this annual tradition, however, is the list of undrafted invitees. Each year, teams from around the league use their development camps as a proving ground for various prospects whose names were not called during the full seven rounds of the draft, inviting them to demonstrate their skills in a closed setting. This method can uncover a few intriguing talents that happen to be left floating around on the open market – some who could potentially carry a high upside if given the right in-house grooming.

The Maple Leafs, as they are so want to do, have taken full advantage of this relatively uncharted avenue.

Their list of undrafted invitees this year has been drawing rave reviews from the online scouting community on the whole, with particular focus paid towards a pair of QMJHLers in Xavier Simoneau of Drummondville and Marc-Antoine Pepin of Shawinigan.

Now, I’m not going to pretend to know anything about these thought-to-be diamonds in the rough. My knowledge gap on this year’s draft class has been noted for all you wonderful readers to see. What I will do, however, is lean on the opinions of scouting gurus who are far more intelligent than I.

According to Scott Wheeler of The Athletic, Simoneau was ranked as high as 79th on his board, while landing at 89th on EliteProspects’ final rankings and being listed 93rd overall by Future Considerations, as well.

What this means, essentially, is that the Maple Leafs will have the opportunity to sign a player, without needing to spend a draft slot on him, who was thought by most to be a middle-round talent. That’s not too shabby, if you ask me.

In the case of Pepin, he is an 18-year-old LHD who produced at a decent rate offensively in the QMJHL last season given his rookie status, managing 13 points in 23 games. However, it was playing those scant 23 games that conceivably hindered Pepin’s exposure throughout his draft year. There seems to be, by all accounts, some decent tools there to work with. And if there is any organization who can first identify what those tools are, and then groom them along, it’s the Maple Leafs.

While the concept of a development camp may not seem too thrilling, this year’s event could very well be worthy of keeping an eye on.

Thanks for reading!