The Toronto Maple Leafs might not have had a first-round pick during the 2025 NHL Entry Draft last year. But after witnessing what has been taking place at the IIHF World Championship this season, it certainly feels like the Maple Leafs have actually found a top prospect of first-round level quality nonetheless.
That is because surprising Leafs prospect Tinus Luc Koblar has been shocking the hockey world with his Worlds performance to date with Team Norway. At just 18 years young and playing against experienced, grown men in the tournament, Koblar has raised his game to dominate on the ice for his home country.
Surprising Leafs prospect is shocking the hockey world with his World Championship performance
In seven games so far with Norway, the Maple Leafs prospect has recorded five goals and three assists for eight points along with a plus/minus of +7, showing that he has been controlling the ice in 5-on-5 situations. Not only that, Koblar is actually leading his entire team that is full of veterans in scoring aa well. In doing so, the young Leafs helped fuel Norway to a surprising 4-1-1-1 record while outscoring the opposition 25-14 to claim second place in Group B just behind Team Canada in the preliminary round at the Worlds.
Leafs Prospect Tinus Luc Koblar adds 2 goals today for Norway to put him at 5 goals at the World Championships. pic.twitter.com/VqvZ1OPvmq https://t.co/M3r9dfN3d7
— Rink Rat Report (@RinkRatReport) May 26, 2026
Pretty impressive stuff for someone that was supposedly just the Maple Leafs’ late second-round selection, 64th overall from the 2025 NHL Entry Draft. Especially when Koblar was expected to still have a growth curve before finally making it to the big show with the Leafs in the future. Just this past season, the 18-year-old forward played in the Swedish Hockey League with Laksands IF where he registered eight goals and six assists for 14 points in 47 games of action.
Koblar followed it up with a solid showing in the playoffs with the Laksands IF Jr. team in which he recorded two goals and three assists for five points in just four games played. Nevertheless, his exposure in the SHL no doubt had an effect on his rapid development during the past season, paving way to his current strong showing at the World Championship.
More impressively, as pointed out by Leafs Land Legend, one of the projected top picks for the upcoming 2026 NHL Draft in Ivar Stenberg has compiled seven points in six games on a strong Swedish team at the Worlds thus far. But Koblar has accomplished his numbers with a much weaker team in Norway. To have comparable numbers to someone who is just two months younger and could pretty well be the No. 1 or No. 2 pick overall this year is quite the achievement for the Maple Leafs prospect.
Hopefully, Koblar turns out to be one of those hidden gems from the later rounds for Toronto down the road. In the meantime, it’s comforting to know that the cupboard isn’t all that bare for the Leafs despite dealing away so many draft picks in recent years. Especially now with the 18-year-old potentially turning out to be someone special, if Maple Leafs fans weren’t paying much attention to him before, they sure will now.
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