The morning after the Toronto Maple Leafs took down the Colorado Avalanche in a tight 2-1 victory, the club announced they had college free agent John Prokop to a one-year entry level contract.
The contract between Prokop and the Toronto Maple Leafs will be for the 2025-26 NHL season and the soon to be 24-year old will join the Toronto Marlies for the remainder of their season on an Amateur Tryout contract (ATO).
The Wisconsin native will turn 24 in May and went undrafted after splitting his draft year between the Janesville Jets of the NAHL and Omaha Lancers of the USHL. After going undrafted in his second go around, Prokop would join Union College where he has been playing for the last three seasons and served as an alternative captain this past season.
🖊 We’ve signed defenceman John Prokop to a one-year contract beginning in the 2025-26 season.
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) March 20, 2025
He will join the @TorontoMarlies for the remainder of the 2024-25 season on an amateur tryout. pic.twitter.com/oVRzdNWcw3
During his three years playing NCAA hockey, the 6'3" left handed defenseman recorded 20 goals and 85 points in 107 games, while adding 83 penalty minutes.
Flohockey reports that Prokop is a two-way smooth skating defenseman that can be relied in all situations and that his puck moving skills developed through his time at Union College.
The contract is just one season, but that is not due to any sort of lack of confidence or time that organization is giving to Prokop, rather the NHLPA and NHL's Collective Bargaining Agreement dictates any player aged 24 will have to sign a one-year contract. At the conclusion of the 2025-26 NHL season, Prokop will remain as a restricted free agent.
Prokop will join a defense prospect pool that includes Ben Danford, Noah Chadwick and Cade Webber who all stand 6'3" or taller that have been brought into the organization since Brad Treliving came on as general manager.
Toronto Maple Leafs continue to restock through college free-agency
As the traded deadline as come and gone where the management added prospects such as Fraser Minten and Nikita Grebenkin in trades, they continue to add to the cupboards through the college free agent route.
The club has already seen their previous college free agent signings play games with the club this season as Bobby McMann has become a mainstay in the middle six and has contributed 18-goals so far, Alex Steeves keeps kicking at the door as he leads the AHL in scoring while contributing two points in seven games with the big club and Jack Quillan made his NHL debut earlier this year while registering 28-points with the Marlies.
Bobby McMann was originally signed to an AHL deal with the Marlies back in 2020 where he earned an NHL contract the following season, Alex Steeves signed back in the spring of 2021, while Quillan signed with the organization last spring to a two-year entry level contract.
While the team continues to trade draft picks in an attempts to make deep runs in the playoffs, finding players like Bobby Mcmann and John Prokop becomes invaluable as they can fill their prospect pool without using any assets other than contract space.