2026 T25U25: Jacob Quillan is #11

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For a lot of his hockey career, Jacob Quillan has been not quite enough to get noticed, and as he turns 25 in this coming hockey season, he may not be quite enough to get an NHL job. He is very, very close, though.

Jacob Quillan	Vitals
Age as of July 1	24.41
Position	C
Height	6'1"
Weight (lbs)	204
Shoots	L
Draft Year	Undrafted
Draft Number	NA

Born in Nova Scotia, he took a path as a young player that would lead to the NCAA like his older brother. The first stop was a prep school in Connecticut where he was quite enough to play as one of their better players. When he lined up against the Syracuse Crunch last year in the AHL, he was facing his old teammate, Lucas Mercuri, who was a sixth-round draft pick of Carolina. Quillan was not quite enough to get listed by NHL Central Scouting in his draft year, whereas his taller teammate was deep down the list.

Mercuri was 12th in the AHL last year in PIM while he got 0.39 points per game. Quillan was at 0.9 points per game in only 40 AHL games while he played in 23 games with the Leafs. He spent very little time watching from the penalty box.

I think that shows something more about the AHL, why it is the way it is, and why a player like Quillan who quietly goes about the business of hockey might be not quite the first guy recalled. The AHL is the comfortable home of players drafted for their "Plan B" playing style.

When Quillan got to Quinnipiac, he was one of the top players on his team by his second year at a time when Quinnipiac was not home to future NHL stars. He was second in points to Colin Graf, an undrafted player who has more NHL time than Quillan, possibly because he plays for the Sharks.

After college, Quillan came to Toronto, to the Marlies, where he was instantly good, but not quite enough to play on the Leafs. He has gotten better in the AHL, becoming a solid centre for the Calder Cup run, but he wasn't quite enough to hit the Leafs until the team was emptied of centres by the trade deadline and injuries. Prior to March last year, he played in only four games on the Leafs.

He averaged less than 10 minutes per game in the NHL at even strength but was a regular on the penalty kill. Bo Groulx, on a shooting heater in the AHL which carried over to the NHL, was favoured to play further up the lineup, but it pays to remember the team was playing the worst hockey in the NHL.

The Player

Who Quillan is in the AHL in detail is interesting to Marlies fans, but it isn't the point of this look at Quillan. The question today is about the not quite enough label, and if it's still true.

In the NHL, he shot very, very little. So little, he'd never stick, even on the fourth line in normal conditions. Of course, last spring on the Leafs was hardly normal. There were some players that rose above the overall state of the team, players who could function in the defensive zone well enough to leave it occasionally. Quillan wasn't one of them, but he was also not below the team level of that period. You have to get some time in the offensive zone to have a record of shooting that looks promising and he just didn't.

A very good comparison for Quillan is Alex Steeves, a player who many believed deserved a chance to play in the NHL, and when he was signed by a team lacking depth, he showed a very, very modest value as a fourth-liner once he hit age 25. Steeves shows some very gentle defensive value, the sort of thing easily improved upon by finding a player with some offensive gifts as well if you look around for them. Or, as is also common, the sort of player replaced with a "Plan B" style player who is less boring but not actually better.

Quillan is now where Steeves was when he left the Leafs and joined the Bruins at a time they were a little more hungry for forwards and youth for the sake of it. Quillan could be, at his salary of $850,000, the bargain centre who neither adds nor subtracts. He's not going to be that on the Leafs, as they have gone in an very different direction in their depth acquisitions with some attention paid to Plan B as well as some other key attributes like speed.

That's where Quillan is right now, not quite enough to take a job on the team, but ready to be the guy who gets recalled when they need someone who has been in the NHL, knows the drill and can just hit the ice and play without causing problems or needing to be told how to fit in.

The Votes

I voted for Quillan in exactly the same spot I had him last year for exactly the same reasons. He was my gatekeeper vote. If any player or prospect was either in the NHL or could reasonably be seen to be there fulltime at any level in the future, they got ranked above him. Otherwise below him. To me he is Alex Steeves, and neither is quite enough to matter to an NHL team in a meaningful way.

I have him higher than a lot of people, not because of him, but rather because of my valuation of others outside this list and where I think they stand in absolute terms. Not very high, in other words.

Voter	Vote
Cathy	10
Species	11
Hound Line	17
Shinson93	9
Cameron	9
Sclodiggity	17
Brian S	15
Svalbard38	18
Zone Entry	8
Hardev	10
Adam	7
Weighted Average	11.91
Highest Vote	7
Lowest Vote	18

Everyone voted for him, and it a reasonably tight range in this portion of the vote, where the votes have just stepped up by big jumps through our two previous players – similar in many ways to Quillan. How do you pick from this handful of solid centres with no real flash or dazzle to their games? How do you guess who tops out just that little bit higher? And then consider how this bunch are separated from Tinus Luc Koblar, as almost everyone believes they are. It's not an easy task.

The Opinions

Shinson93: Quillan was clearly the best prospect on the Marlies for much of the season, earning the call-up for the 23 games he got with the Leafs. That said, he didn’t really wow anyone in those games (neither did anyone else on the team), but did look pretty good in his injury shortened playoffs back with the Marlies. With all the players added in the offseason, he’s probably pushed a few notches down the depth chart. I hope he still keeps the fire to fight for another opportunity, as he’s still young enough to get more chances. Being waiver exempt might jump him over any veterans that make it through waivers.

Hound Line: Jack of all trades, master of none. He's the baseball idea of a replacement level player. I think he's more likely to play 100+ NHL games than most on the list but he's unlikely to provide any value in those games barring a Hyman like mid-twenties development path. His biggest value right now is his waiver exempt status.

Sclodiggity: I wrote fairly damning blurbs about a few players that top out as callups (see Sims and Haymes) and how they don’t create significant value. That follows for Quillan (whom I ranked 17th) but he looks head and shoulders above those other two I mentioned (albeit, a few years older). He’s played NHL games in two straight seasons now (only 1 in 2024, but that still made him the top call up at a certain point), and his AHL season was strong. He’ll turn 25 this year and, looking at the Leafs roster, won’t get more than a quick stint once again. I’m very comfortable with him in that role, and think he’d look okay playing 70+ games on a bottom feeder, but this is likely what he is.

Svalbard38: I probably ranked Quillan lower than he deserves, but every year, as a community voter and now as a guest voter, there’s a player or two that forces me to grapple with the question “are we ranking players or are we ranking Leafs?”. I believe that at the end of the day, we’re ranking Leafs. Quillan’s played for the Leafs, that’s more than a lot of the guys on this list will be able to say, but what does his future look like? In my Quillan blurb last year I was concerned that Quillan was “the new Alex Steeves” and nothing I’ve seen has changed my mind about that. Given the bottom six depth we added this offseason, I doubt Quillan gets meaningful time in NHL games this season. I hope he makes me look stupid but I have trouble getting excited about Quillan as it stands.

Cameron: Used mostly as a defensive centre callup, Quillan was one of my favourite players to watch on a struggling team last year. Quillan played 23 games for the leafs last season, scoring a goal and 3 points, which doesn’t show his offensive potential. I saw offensive skill from a player who was on a line which wasn’t meant for scoring, those numbers may have looked better if he was played in a more offensive role. I probably am more optimistic on Quillan than many others, but I do believe he has the ability to become a bottom 6 C (likely 4C) on the Leafs if he can keep working hard and improve on his performance last year.

Your turn. How did you decide between all these players?

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