Maple Leafs Draft Patriks Plumins with the 114th overall in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft

The Toronto Maple Leafs have taken Patriks Plumins with the 114th overall pick in the fourth round of the 2026 Entry Draft.

Vitals

Plumins is a Latvian goalie, listed at 6'4" tall and 214 lbs. He is just 18, and has been playing for Zemgale in Latvia for his whole career. He played almost entirely in the senior league last year.

Career

Notably, Plumins does not get into very many games.

Scouting Reports

The emphasis with this goalie seems to be on his thinking. He is repeatedly noted for being cerebral or for making good reads.

McKeen's says:

Already possessing the kind of dreamy size wished for in modern goaltenders, Plumins came into the season somewhat off the draft map and despite some fantastic regular season numbers for his Zemgale pro team, they came in just 16 games in one of Europe’s least notable and scouted leagues. He also was in goal for Latvia’s U20 (one shutout win) and U18 teams (1.60 GAA and one shutout in five outings) in various friendlies this winter but first jumped into everyone’s notebooks at the U18 Worlds, especially after carrying Latvia to the bronze medal game thanks to a highly unexpected and outstanding 5-2 quarterfinals victory over the USA. That may have been the highlight but came after he first saw action in Game 2 of the tournament and proceeded to hold Finland to two and Norway to one goal against.

A gold medal game appearance was thwarted in a 1-0 semifinal loss to host Slovakia, the third time in the tournament that his teammates had been kept off the scoreboard. The 4-1 loss to Czechia in the bronze medal game included two empty netters. All this added up to Plumins being named the tournament’s top goaltender.

Technically, it was easy to see why Plumins was so successful. He displays fantastic up-and-down movements, incredible puck-tracking abilities, strong post-covering tendencies, and a snazzy glove hand. Clearly a student of the game, his stick and leg saves regularly direct the puck away from the slot, and thus, he’s masterful in minimizing rebound attempts in his crease. His lateral movement looks effortless and can make the impression that he’s basically just floating out there. The true danger here is that Plumins’ sample size is minimal. The scouting community is basically working off the basis of this one tournament but hardly anyone isn’t excited to see what he does for an encore.

Hockey Prospect says:

Patriks Plumins is arguably the most advanced goalie mentally in this class. He falls into a rare level of cerebral-blocking style goalie, who has the necessary mental traits to counteract some of his physical limitations. Stylistically, there’s some overlap with Jesper Wallstedt at the same stage in their development, due to their advanced reads and tracking with similarly large frames. His international performance at the U18’s was important for his evaluation, since the Latvian Pro league can feature a lot of low-danger shots, which makes our job more difficult.

Plumins bread and butter skill-set are his advanced reads and puck tracking ability. It’s a difficult balancing act for a goalie to be able to anticipate developing plays without over-extending and getting too far ahead of it, but that’s where Plumins excels. He’s exceptional at finally tuning his reads, so that he can put himself in the best possible positions for multi-option plays. His depth management is exceptional, and he’s seemingly always aware of his general surroundings, both with the man advantage and at even strength. His advanced reads extend to odd-man rush plays, back-door entries, net-front redirects, evaluating release points in high-danger areas, and low-to-high passing plays around his net area. Plumins knows how to operate within his windows when the puck is behind his net better than most other goalies in this class. He’s very good at controlling the speed of his transfers when going from post to post as the puck changes windows, and he’s excellent at timing when he should remain anchored and maintain a short-side seal in-case of a reverse pass getting generated on the strong side as the opposing forward is going the opposite direction.

Elite Prospects says:

A very strong positional goaltender, Plūmiņš is physically built for professional hockey, with a mature 6-foot-3, 203-pound frame. He challenges shooters well, framing his hands and legs effectively as he cuts down the angle and re-adjusts his depth accordingly to keep the net covered as the play crashes in. Strong on his posts, he transitions quickly into the RVH seals well from that position.

He also uses his stick effectively on the post, cutting away passing lanes and disrupting puck carriers with an active stick. He tracks pucks well with his glove hand, directs rebounds with his butterfly, and anticipates well, constantly scanning for threats.

While he has good athleticism, his recoveries are affected by being slow to get up. Whether an athletic or alertness issue, his engagement level can wane over the course of 60 minutes. He can also struggle to adjust his angle on the fly and rely only on his depth. Additionally, he can act late on his reads, and will need to ensure his scans inform his play-reading – again, possibly an engagement issue. While normally composed, when Plūmiņš becomes erratic, his positional and technical base sometimes falter after he loses sight of the puck or faces significant adversity.