Maple Leafs invite large OHL winger to prospect showcase

The Toronto Maple Leafs have their Prospect Showdown in a couple weeks and are bringing in one of the most intriguing young free agents available.

Alex Pharand has spent the last four seasons in the OHL and at 20 years old, looks to be garnering some interest from the Leafs organization. The 6-foot-3 winger was an invite to Leafs development camp in June and is now getting another invite, this time to the Prospect Showdown.

Hosted by the Montreal Canadiens, the Prospect Showdown will be taking place on September 13 and 14 at the Bell Centre. While previously it was just the Leafs and Canadiens prospects facing off, this year they are bringing in two other Canadian clubs. The Ottawa Senators and Winnipeg Jets will be joining the two historic franchises in Montreal for this two-day, future-focused event.

The 20-year-old winger was originally drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks in the fourth round of the 2023 NHL Draft at 99th overall. With his signing rights with Chicago expiring, he was free to sign with any team and is keeping it close to home with the Leafs organization.

Pharand only really popped off for the Sudbury Wolves last season, as he managed to score 17 goals and 59 points. He previously has hit that goal total -- the Sudbury, Ont. native scored 17 the year prior and 18 the year before that -- but it is the assists that really exploded, as he went from a mediocre 13 helpers during the 2024-25 season, to more than triple that amount with 42 assists last season.

And, to make things slightly more intriguing, back in 2023, Pharand showed off some slick moves to score a potential Goal of the Year candidate.

What happens next?

Pharand has not officially signed a contract, but there is an interesting wrinkle. The winger gave an interview with Radio-Canada but unfortunately it is in French. Through Google Translate, though, we're able to at least read some of it and Pharand directly mentions signing a contract.

So, either he spilled the beans before the team officially announced anything or something confused the translation robot and he meant just having whatever agreement is needed to go to the Prospect Showdown.

But, that doesn't mean a contract isn't in Pharand's future. There isn't hot competition down with the AHL's Toronto Marlies for spots in that lineup -- it's a lot of solid depth players who have more experience but if signed to something like an AHL contract and he impresses at Marlies camp next month, he could make his way onto the team. Or, it wouldn't even be the worst thing if he was down in the ECHL with the Cincinnati Cyclones. We've had ECHL success stories in this organization before.

We'll see where this goes but the Leafs are at least always on the lookout for adding young talent in the organization by any means.