Lost in all the talk about Matthew Knies, Easton Cowan and Fraser Minten, the Toronto Maple Leafs have another prospect in their system that is pushing for another chance at the big club and that is Alex Steeves.
Signed by the Toronto Maple Leafs as an undrafted college free agent in the spring of 2021, Steeves is now in his fourth season with the organization. The soon to be 25-year old has always been one of the top scorers on the Marlies finishing top three in each of his years on the club as he recorded 69-goals and 154-points in 188 games over that span.
This past weekend, the former Notre Dame forward collected six points over a pair of games which included four goals.
With his nine goals through ten games to start the season he sits second in the American Hockey League, just one behind leader Rory Kerins whose team has played four more games than Steeves so far this season.
Alex Steeves pushing for a call-up to the Toronto Maple Leafs
During the Marlies contest on Saturday against the Charlotte Checkers, they found themselves tied late in the third period when Steeves was able to score his second of the day for the game winning goal which earned him first star of the game.
Twenty-four hours later, the two teams were back at it, this time Toronto found themselves down 4-2 in the third period and Steeves came to the rescue again. The offensive forward brought his team within a goal early in the final period, before tying it with his second of the game with just over four minutes left in the contest to force overtime where the Marlies would ultimately lose. Steeves earned second star of the week and helped his team collect three of a possible four points over the weekend.
Under the Sheldon Keefe regime, Steeves never really got a fair shot when he was recalled to the big club. Over the previous three seasons he has joined the Maple Leafs on four different occurrences and got into seven games collecting just one point. However, in those contests he was assigned to a depth role and played over eight minutes just twice which was 10:06 and 10:14.
The Toronto Maple Leafs fourth line generates almost no offense, and while Steeves could potentially play higher in the lineup, he's going to have to start by taking ice-time from Ryan Reaves, David Kampf or Steven Lorentz, all players who he should easily be able to out-score. Steeves just has to be patient and wait for his chance - it will come soon.