As the Toronto Maple Leafs 2024-25 season comes to a close, so too does the wider hockey world, like the NCAA. This allows players who’s seasons have ended to sign entry-level contracts (ELCs) as free agents and with their rights holders as we are seeing a large influx now.
Toronto Maple Leafs general manager, Brad Treliving has made use of this window signing free agents; Borya Valis, Luke Haymes, and John Prokop to ELCs from their respective leagues.
This has allowed the team to attempt to replenish their prospect pool after shedding two top prospects in Fraser Minten and Nikita Grebenkin, as well as two first round picks at the NHL trade deadline last month.
Although this window is open to any league with players signing from major juniors in Canada (CHL) to a variety of European professional leagues, this brief period before the end of the season is most notable for NCAA free agents and drafted prospects who sign at the conclusion of their collegiate year. Some recent notable examples are Matthew Knies, Cale Makar, and Luke Hughes, who joined their NHL team around this time and were able to make an impact in the postseason.
The Toronto Maple Leafs could lose the rights to these 3 prospects
Unfortunately, this does not appear to be in the cards for the buds this year despite having quite a few prospects on their reserve list in the NCAA. There are even a few who’s rights are set to expire should the Maple Leafs fail to sign them (puckpedia.com).
Last season, the Maple Leafs failed to sign prospects Veeti Miettinen and Brandon Lisowsky, which resulted in the club losing their exclusive rights to those respective players. Miettinen, who was born and raised in Finland returned to his home country this past year putting together a respectable 14 points in 31 games in the top men’s league, Liiga split between two clubs, KalPa and KooKoo.
Lisowsky returned to the WHL, back to the Saskatoon Blades, the same club he has played with since entering the league in the 2019/20 season. He was traded at the deadline to the Victoria Royals who are currently leading their first round playoff series 3-1 with Lisowsky netting five points in those games. He has since committed to join Colorado College of the NCAA next season, following the association’s landmark decision to allow major junior players to commit to their programs.
All three players rights are set to expire on August 15th, 2025 should the Maple Leafs and themselves not come to an agreement.
Mike Koster, D
Koster is a 5-10 190lbs left-handed defenseman that was drafted by the Maple Leafs under the previous regime, in the fifth round 146th overall in 2019. The 23-year-old has spent the past five seasons in the NCAA with the University of Minnesota, where he played with fellow Leafs draftee, Matthew Knies. He was the Golden Gophers captain the past two seasons and throughout his entire career played 180 regular season games amassing 89 points (eliteprospects.com).
Since the conclusion of the 2024-25 collegiate season, he has signed a minor league contract with the Iowa Heartlanders of the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL). The Heartlanders are the ECHL affilate of the AHL's Iowa Wild and NHL's Minnesota Wild.
Wyatt Schingoethe, F
Schingoethe was drafted by the Maple Leafs in the seventh round, 195th overall in 2020, his draft pick rights were acquired by the club after trading defenseman Fedor Gordeev to the Minnesota Wild. Dubbed as a defensively responsible center, Schingoethe played limited minutes throughout his collegiate career and as such scored five goals and 10 assists for 15 points in 82 games.
After four years with the Western Michigan University, Schingoethe is without a contract for the remainder of this season or the future. It is unclear what is next for the Illinois-born forward, especially with his limited production at the NCAA level. It seems unlikely that a pro contract is in the books.
John Fusco, D
Fusco was another player drafted in the seventh round of the 2020 NHL draft by the Maple Leafs, his draft pick rights were acquired at the 2018 NHL Trade Deadline from the San Jose Sharks for Eric Fehr. He is 5-10 and 190lbs right-shot defenseman who has seen steady improvement year-over-year starting his college career at Harvard University. There, Fusco eclipsed two points in 26 games before transferring to Dartmouth College, and finished his collegiate career with 51 points in 112 games.
Despite his size, he is willing to engage physically which that combined with his reasonable scoring rate the past three seasons could make him a candidate for a minor league contract. Although, at this stage he does not have one and it seems unlikely that the Leafs would tender a contract offer given Treliving's preferred defensive archetype.