Maple Leafs Prospect Report: March 3rd News and Stars

Tyler Hopkins (C, 3rd Rounder 2025)

Since Feb 24: 3 goals, 1 assist in 3 games
Season to date: 24 goals, 25 assists (49 points) in 54 games

After writing about Hopkins' hot goal (and point) streak from the previous two weeks, that streak continued through last week. He had two goals against a top team like Kitchener on Wednesday, then had a primary assist on Friday, and finished the week with a goal again on Sunday. He's now on an 8 game point streak with 8 goals and 5 assists, and firing a lot more pucks on net while he's at it (around 4.5 per game).

Some goals have definitely been on the junior variety, but I've liked seeing him score in different ways during this stretch. I've seen him get a deflection goal, a dirty rebound goal, some one timers on the power play, goals off the rush, and so on. I keep wanting to see what his tracking data looks like but he hasn't appeared in them yet.

Harry Nansi (C/RW, 5th Rounder 2025)

Since Jan 28: 2 goals, 1 assist in 3 games
Season to date: 13 goals, 39 assists (52 points) in 59 games

Speaking of point streaks continuing from what I wrote about in the last report, Nansi played in three games from last week and had 2 goals and 1 assist to run his streak to 9 games. Not sure if it's related, but his streak started not long after it seems the team gave up on trying him at center towards the end of January.

Nansi's season now includes a real hot start with a long point streak, juiced by big powerplay numbers, then an equally cold streak from late November through to the end of January, and now another streak that is less reliant on the man advantage. In first 23 games of the season when he was in the top 5 in the entire OHL in points, 53% of them came on the powerplay. In his current 9 game point streak, that dropped to 36%.

I said it last time that Nansi was not as good as those first 23 games made him seem, but he also wasn't as bad as he looked in the subsequent cold spell. I think he had some swings of luck, mixed with changing usage, and now I think the team and Nansi himself have made some improvements and resolved the experiments and found something that's working.

Miroslav Holinka (C, 5th Rounder 2024)

Since Jan 6: 3 goals, 1 assist in 4 games
Season to date: 35 goals, 41 assists (76 points) in 53 games

Holinka has, once again, made a spot for himself in my three stars. It's pretty easy to say that aside from Koblar, Holinka has had the most impressive season. At some level, that's to be expected from a guy in his final junior season, especially given how many of the stars of the CHL left for the NCAA. But it's worth remembering he's a fifth round pick, it's not like he had a lot of hype. He's once again in the top five in the WHL when it comes to point per game pace, since he's missed some time with an injury and Toronto's training camp. It's just a matter of how deep a playoff run we can see from him, now.

What Holinka has done is shown steady improvements since coming to the WHL. He still has some nifty mittens and a wicked shot, but he's evolved his power game. He uses the give-and-go to drive better transitions through the neutral zone. He has leaned on his size and physical strength more, when it comes to puck protection and battling for loose pucks along the boards. What I'd still like to see is him improving his skating as much as possible. It's not bad right now, but I think he could especially use a bit more explosiveness and top speed. He's got the shiftiness and agility parts down already.

News & Notes

Tinus Luc Koblar (C, 2nd rounder in 2025) – Koblar had a goal and an assist in his last game on Saturday, and he returned to the second line center after dropping to the third line for a bit. That game brought him to 7 goals and 13 points on the season. Among all U19 players in the SHL, Koblar is 4th – behind the 3rd overall pick and another 2nd round pick from last year, and a guy who will almost certainly be a top 5 pick this year. It's definitely been a very solid year to see for his development.

Victor Johansson (LHD, 4th rounder in 2024) – As Cathy put in the comments of the last update, Leksands fired their GM... who just so happened to be Johansson's father. Maybe because of that, maybe not, but Johansson's playing time with the SHL team was cut to zero for two games before returning to the Allsvenskan team he had been loaned to earlier in the year. He's playing 15-21 minutes in the four games since then, and had two assists. It's much nicer to see him get that playing time.

Alexander Plesovskikh (RW, 5th rounder in 2024) – Plesovskikh has had an okay season. He's mostly played back in junior again, which isn't great for his development. He did get a couple of games in the VHL, but in the past week he also got into two games for his KHL club in Russia's top pro league. He only played 1:02 and 2:43 in those two games, and was returned to his junior team for the weekend, but it's nice to see him getting those looks.

William Belle (RW, 5th rounder in 2025) – I written pretty much nothing about Belle this year since writing his draft profile. That's mostly because there wasn't much to write about. He's played all season on Notre Dame's fourth line in the NCAA averaging around 8-10 minutes per game of ice time, and had only three points all season going into this weekend. But hey, here's a nice little reminder that he exists as he scored his first college goal against a top team like Penn State.

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!