Maple Leafs Prospect Report: February 10th News and Stars

It's been a while since my last prospect report. Ironically, despite losing my full time job I haven't had as much time to watch games as I used to. But I've been watching what I can and following the rest on social media and the boxscores, so let's see who's been hot!

Miroslav Holinka (C, 5th rounder 2024)

Since Jan 28: 2 goals, 1 assist in 1 game
Season to date: 30 goals, 35 assists in 43 games

At this point in the season, Holinka has arguably been the best story among Toronto's prospects. From the start of the season to now, he's been consistently performing at a high level in his league. The only blip has been a recent injury that kept him out for a couple of weeks, which caused him to slip down the league's offensive leaderboard.

Holinka has only played in one game, on Friday, but he came back and made an impact immediately with 2 goals and 1 assist. By points and goals per game, he's just behind the leaders in the entire WHL, and he's still in the top 10 for raw totals overall. After Edmonton made a number of big moves to make their roster stronger ahead of the playoffs, Holinka has continued to have a top role. He's their top line center, and on the top units on both special teams. He's tied for the lead league in short handed goals, too. At this point I'm just waiting for the playoffs to come, and hoping he stays healthy before then, so I can see how he performs on one of the top teams in the league.

Nick Moldenhauer (RW, 3rd rounder 2022)

Since Jan 28: 4 goals in 4 games
Season to date: 10 goals, 12 assists (22 points) in 28 games

For the second straight prospect update I've made, I'm including Moldenhauer as the second star. In the past two weekends, he has put up 4 goals in 4 games for Michigan, including two against the top ranked team in the NCAA – Michigan State. In fact, if you go back to his last four weeks of games he has 8 goals and 10 points in 8 games. He's already set career highs in goals and points for the season, in only 28 games. It's definitely the best he's played, conveniently starting after I started writing him off as a prospect.

What's helped Moldenhauer is a combination of finding a role that works for him, committing to it, and being given an opportunity. He's been bumped to the top line at even strength where he is used as a support player. He helps drive transitions, playing good defense, and chipping in on offense by finishing plays. What's been interesting is watching how he plays offensively now – it isn't the more skilled kind of offense you'd have thought when watching him in junior. He's going to the net and scoring off of deflections or rebounds, and occasionally sniping a shot when he's set up by a teammate. He's not getting much powerplay time, but he is one of their regular penalty killers. If he can keep up this higher level of play through the rest of this season and the playoffs, he might just keep alive the faint hopes of him turning into something useful as a pro.

Rylan Fellinger (RD, 6th rounder 2025)

Since Jan 6: 2 assists in 6 games
Season to date: 2 goals, 10 assists (12 points) in 50 games

There wasn't really an obvious choice for a third star from the past couple of weeks. Various guys were hurt or in a period where their team just wasn't playing much, the rest who were healthy and playing have just been playing okay. So I'll give a special shoutout to one of Shinson's favourites: Fellinger. From what I've seen, he's definitely improved from this year compared to last season. I wouldn't say he's taken a big leap, but he's already well past his point production from last season, he's one of the leaders on the team in +/-, and he's starting to be used more at even strength.

Shinson, who has probably been watching him more than me this year, has given him good marks for his improved defense, physical play, puck movement, and getting involved in their offensive zone possessions more than just sitting at his spot on the blueline. Flint loaded up at the deadline so we'll have a chance to see them try and make a deeper run in the playoffs than just an early first round exit.

News & Notes

Ben Danford (RD, 1st rounder in 2024) – The only update on Danford is not a great one. After the World Juniors it took him a few games to return to Brantford's lineup, compared to when other WJC players had returned to their CHL teams. I wasn't sure if he was banged up then, but he did eventually return in late-January. However, he's missed their last two games they played over this past weekend, and when I watched back his last game it looks like he's out with a concussion after a freak collision away from the play.

Matthew Lahey (LD, 7th rounder in 2024) – Sticking with our defensemen, Lahey has continued to stick in Michigan State's lineup as the 7th defenseman for the (now) top ranked team in the NCAA. He had his third assist of the season to end January, against Penn State who have also been one of the top teams in college. Then, this past weekend he helped the team go 1-0-1 against Michigan, who had been the top ranked team going into this past weekend. He's in the Fellinger-like group of late round defensemen with size, some good skating, and mostly defensive-focused skills. I'd like to see him earn more of a role before I follow him more seriously.

Sam McCue (LW, 7th rounder in 2024) – It's been a rough year for McCue, who has failed to take any meaningful step forward in his development and has been traded twice if you count an off-season trade in the summer. But I'll say one thing for him, he can be fun to watch in junior at times – you can see the evidence below. It's just unfortunate it's only ever in brief flashes despite being one of the older players in the league.

Thanks for reading!

I put a lot of work into my prospect articles here, both for the draft and Toronto's prospects. I do it as a fun hobby for me, and I'd probably do it in some capacity even if PPP completely ceased to exist. But if you like reading my work, some support would go a long way! I pay for a few streaming services (CHL, NCAA, USHL, the occasional TSN options for international tournaments that are broadcast) to be able to reliably watch these prospects in good quality streams. I also pay for some prospect-specific resources, such as tracking data and scouting reports from outlets like Elite Prospects, Future Considerations, McKeen's Hockey, The Athletic, and more.

Being able to get paid for this helps me dedicate more time and resources to it, rather than to second/third jobs. And whatever money I make here, a lot of I reinvest back into my prospect work through in those streaming and scouting services. Like I said, I'd be doing whatever I can afford for this anyway, so any financial help I get through this is greatly appreciated!