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# 2026 T25U25: Tinus Luc Koblar is #5
- URL: https://www.pensionplanpuppets.com/2026-t25u25-tinus-luc-koblar-is-5/
- Published: 2026-09-10T12:00:14.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-10T12:00:14.000Z
- Description: About to step on the ice in Gatineau, still bathed in the warm glow of a unexpected Norwegian run at Worlds, do we have a strong handle of this player?
- Author: Cathy Squires
- Tags: Top 25 Under 25

Drafted by the Leafs last summer, and ranked sixth in the T25 a few weeks later, TLK now has an acronym for a name, an ELC, and is about to play in the Leafs rookie tournament. He just lined up with Gavin McKenna at development camp and then bounced back to Sweden to play in two preseason games for the SHL team he signed a contract with before the ELC. 

He is slated to come to the Leafs training camp, and has made the sort of statements to the press you get from a young player trying for the first time to make the NHL team. He's going to try to be sure, but expectations should be that he plays the season in Sweden. 

| Tinus Luc Koblar | Vitals |
| ---------------- | ------ |
| Age as of July 1 | 18.95  |
| Position         | C      |
| Height           | 6'3"   |
| Weight (lbs)     | 190    |
| Shoots           | L      |
| Draft Year       | 2025   |
| Draft Number     | 64     |

### The Player

Koblar is an easy player to profile and an easy player to like. He's tall and rangy, and still looks a little ungainly because his skating is not the smooth glide or agile darting technique of a more accomplished player. He's not merely assertive, he's aggressive and is so in the offensive zone in particular. He wants to make things happen, and he's focused on that. He tries things. He tries to create offence, and he tries to control the flow of play, control who has the puck. He can play a solid game as a centre, and is a lot less dull than the group we all ranked around 10th. 

His physical maturation is ongoing, and that plus his mindset of always being willing moved him up the ranks in Swedish hockey faster than I expected. He was on a different team last year, one that was relegated out of the SHL, so he signed that deal with Rögle to play this season on a better team with a deeper roster. And that has been a little revealing already.

He lined up in his second preseason game on the fourth line, after playing the first one with some decent amount of shifts. In that first game his willingness was on display, but neither team had much success at anything. Nothing came as seemingly easy as playing the 1C for Norway in May had done. His team has continued to struggle in their early going, so he wasn't in the best environment to open this season, but the highlights were few. 

I can make the argument here that will douse you in cold water about the meaning of Worlds. I think it's significant that he had Andreas Martinsen on his wing, and I think the actual star of the tournament, Denis Malgin, should tell the story instantly of what Worlds is and is not. Martinsen had a brief NHL career as a big-bodied smooth-skating player who could keep up with the pace of the NHL, but never really add anything. He was the 36-year-old Norwegian league player making the time and space for Koblar to be the 1C and get those sparkly points in the extremely low-checking environment of Worlds. Martinsen could be the ghost of things yet to come for Koblar unless Koblar continues to improve. Now, months on, you are either already there in your mind with a sober reckoning of what Worlds means or you have stars in your eyes that can't be dimmed. 

The larger issue with TLK and where he fits in outside the mere context of him vs Ben Danford, or less plausibly, him vs Easton Cowan, or absurdly, him vs Gavin McKenna is speed vs acceleration. I'm not talking about his skating, but I could be because the two terms are often conflated in that conversation too. 

Koblar accelerated out of junior hockey in Sweden and onto a regular rostered role as a centre on the men's team last year. And then he accelerated up the lineup quickly. He made his debut on the men's team for Norway, and in the absence of many of their more experienced players, was the legitimate 1C on a medal-winning team. 

When he was drafted, he was a surprise pick, but he accelerated right to acceptance as a very good prospect very quickly. He was a legitimate use of the pick he was selected with, but what now? He's about to have a year that will test his ability to continue to accelerate. He's trying to climb out of his teenage years and hit age 20 next summer as well. 

What does he need to be this time next year to warrant your ranking? 

If you put him over Ben Danford, then you have to be expecting him to come to Leafs training camp in a few days ready to make a case that he's too good for the AHL and deserves an NHL roster spot on a very full team. He doesn't have to take a spot, but it has to look like it's plausible he could in an emergency.

If you put him over Easton Cowan, then you really need to expect him to make the team right now, and by next year, he would be considered a rostered NHLer over several older and experienced players. 

For any of this to happen, he has to maintain, not merely his speed, but his acceleration. Noah Chadwick again comes to mind for me, because he did not do that. Fraser Minten, who was in the process of sorting out the junior hockey stuff he had to leave behind while still in junior, moved into the NHL and up the lineup of the Bruins as easily as Koblar did on the worst SHL team last year. 

TLK is in between those two poles, and in this moment it is very difficult to tell where he fits beyond his status as the best centre prospect the team has right now. This weekend may answer some of this as he plays in the much more serious rookie tournament after the casual dev camp introduction of Gavin McKenna on his wing. 

### The Votes

I comfortably ranked Koblar below Ben Danford. I think he's going to hit some turbulence this year in the SHL and struggle at least a little to advance into a meaningful role on a serious team with aspirations for playoff success. Some of that exciting acceleration was the road, not him. 

The road isn't always going to be smooth and easy with Andreas Martinsen riding shotgun. How Koblar responds to some setbacks will tell the story of how far he can really go. 

| Voter            | Vote |
| ---------------- | ---- |
| Cathy            | 5    |
| Species          | 5    |
| Hound Line       | 5    |
| Shinson93        | 3    |
| Cameron          | 5    |
| Sclodiggity      | 5    |
| Brian S          | 5    |
| Svalbard38       | 4    |
| Zone Entry       | 7    |
| Hardev           | 5    |
| Adam             | 5    |
| Weighted Average | 4.91 |
| Highest Vote     | 3    |
| Lowest Vote      | 7    |

### The Opinions

> **Shinson93:** I put Koblar at 3 again this year and debated hard whether I thought he could be second. He was outstanding at the World Championships. This guy is big, skates well, handles the puck, works hard up and down the ice, and is surprisingly good at getting the puck quickly off his stick in close. I think Sundin is going to take this kid under his wing and try to make him in his own image. If he gets even a tiny bit close to that, it will be amazing. That said, he’s young and is probably going to take a bit more time. I’m hoping to see a strong showing in camp before he heads back to Europe.

> **Sclodiggity:** The World Championships absolutely changed my view of him. That is a very high end men's tournament and he was a leader for Norway and stacked up impressively against other team’s top 6s. Great offensive production there and responsible checking (at least in the Bronze game and the Finland games that I watched).

> **Hound Line:** Luxury brand Pierre Engvall - big, deceptively quick upright skater, positionally sound in all three zones. Effectively defends in open space, cuts off the cycle and positions himself well in puck support. Uses his reach, skating and vision to consistently transition through the neutral zone and gain the blueline with control. Has some physical edge in board battle, uses his body to protect the puck and makes simple plays to keep the cycle going. Will drive to the net with and without the puck. Best case scenario: he's an impactful two-way middle six centre.

> **Cameron:** Koblar honestly was a pick I was confused by last year, I thought he’d go a lot later and I wasn’t too enthusiastic about it. What a difference one year makes, Koblar is my favourite prospect to watch, in the World Juniors Div I tournament and the World Championships, he showed why he was taken in the second round. I’m hopeful Koblar can be an effective middle six centre for the Leafs in the near future.

> **Svalbard38:** You never want to let a single tournament influence your opinion of a prospect too much, it’s one thing to put up a good performance over a couple of weeks, it’s another to do it day in and day out. But as tournament performances go, TLK at the World Championships is a very encouraging one. He put up an excellent performance against a field of opponents littered with NHLers. Next on the agenda is a good training camp, a solid SHL season, and a WJC performance that echoes what we’ve seen from him in international play so far. The future’s looking bright for Tinus Luc Koblar.

> **Brigstew:** I am reasonably certain that Koblar can become a third line center. That’s not a guarantee now, no matter how much you like his production at the Worlds. I already liked him and thought he could take a big leap in his development, and he still managed to surprise me with how much he improved and how quickly he earned and cemented a regular SHL role – pretty high in the lineup too. He will have a lot of opportunity to have a big role in multiple ways this year – he moved to a better SHL team with the chance to play a similar role with better quality teammates around him, and he will likely be a leading player for Norway at the World Juniors after helping them qualify for the top division last year. The question now is how much better he can get this year. It sounds like there’s a faint hope he could be NHL ready as early as the start of this season, but I think that’s a pipe dream. But if he makes them really think about it, not unlike Minten and Cowan when they made fans, media and (maybe) the team give them a long look in pre-season the year before they became full time NHLers, that will all but clinch my projection for him.