Maple Leafs Prospect Report: January 6th News and Stars

After the holiday break, and with the conclusion of the World Juniors yesterday, it's been about a month since my last prospect report. So, no better time than now to make an update!

Tinus Luc Koblar (C/LW, 2nd rounder 2025)

Last month: 1 goal, 4* assists (5 points) in 6 games
Season to date: 4 goals, 6* assists (10 points) in 27 games

Koblar's stint with Norway at December's Division 1A World Juniors tournament was a huge success. He was named top forward at the tournament. Since returning to the SHL, he's carried that success over. In those six games, he's mostly played as the team's 2C. He's coming off of consecutive 2 point games*, while averaging around 15 minutes per game. A note on that asterisk, in one of those games he had two assists. The box score for the game on SHL's website shows him with two assists, and if you look at the highlights you can see him very obviously get two assists. But for whatever reason, he officially has only been credited for one assist.

Honestly, from what I've seen he hasn't been doing that much more than he was before. Despite being bumped to the second line center spot on the official lineup, his ice time and role have remained the same. So he's not getting more of an opportunity. He's also not playing in an obviously better way. For me, this is more a case of his teammates have been playing better of late... at least when it comes to finishing scoring opportunities that he helps create.

Miroslav Holinka (C, 5th rounder 2024)

Last month: 8 goals, 6 assists (14 points) in 6 games
Season to date: 23 goals, 31 assists (54 points) in 34 games

Holinka has been on a hell of a run. He's on an 8 game point streak going back to the start of December, and he has 17 points in that span. He's risen to 6th in the entire WHL in goals and 4th in points. He's been maintaining his top line center role, top powerplay unit, and often on the penalty kill. He's tied for the league lead in short handed goals with 3.

The thing is, he's shooting 22% on the season. That's not as absurdly high for junior as it is in the NHL, especially for a guy who has a good shot and is a decent finisher like Holinka does. But his shot rate is much lower than the other top scorers in the league. From what I can tell, this is because of two things. First, Holinka plays a more conservative, two-way center style at even strength. He's not an all-offense guy who pushes play aggressively up the ice. Second, he's more of a dual-threat offensive player than a pure goal scorer. He's just as likely to pass it as he is to shoot it. Both of these stylistic elements of his game are why, I think, his shot rate is lower than you'd expect for a top goal scorer. At this point, he's a must-watch for anyone following Toronto's prospects, as Edmonton goes down the stretch to solidify their playoff position.

Ben Danford (RD, 1st rounder 2024)

Last month: 1 assist in 7 games at the World Juniors

Danford may only have one assist at the World Juniors for Canada in their bronze medal run, but from what I watched he was solid. He was always lined up on the third pairing with a rotating cast of partners, since I believe Canada used at least 7 defensemen in all of their games. His ice time varied from as low as 11:46 in a blowout win against Denmark, to a high of 18:28 against Finland in the round robin. Canada came up short against Czechia in the semis, but he was the second most used defenseman.

Danford played about as well as I was expecting. He was solid defensively for the most part, he moved the puck mostly well out of his own end, and he was jumping into the offense more often than I was expecting. I'm guessing that was a systems thing that the coaches wanted to see from every defenseman. If I nitpick enough I could say that I was hoping for a more consistent amount of high level defensive plays from him. I'd give him an "adequate" grade overall. This tournament shouldn't change your opinion of him.

News & Notes

Victor Johansson (LD, 4th rounder in 2024) – I was disappointed to see that he didn't get much playing time for Sweden at the World Juniors. He didn't dress in every game, and in those that he did dress it was as the 7th defenseman, and in only two of the games did he get any ice time at all... and no more than 7 minutes in any game.

Tyler Hopkins (C, 3rd rounder in 2025) – After missing a couple of weeks due to injury, Hopkins eventually returned at the end of December with a brand new team. Kingston was in tear-down mode at the OHL trade deadline, and Hopkins was dealt to a young but upcoming Guelph team that will be looking to aggressively build towards the 2027 Memorial Cup they're hosting. If Hopkins returns to the OHL next season, he'll be a part of that team as a key piece in his age-19 season.

Joe Miller (C/RW, 6th rounder in 2020) – Miller's always been a long shot, but I've always had a soft spot for him. He reminds me of an even smaller version of Braeden Kressler. They have the brains and a decent amount of skill, but they just don't have the physical capabilities to play at a high level at the professional level. Still, in his final season with Harvard, Miller has been on a strong run with 3 goals and 5 points in his last 4 games.

Rylan Fellinger (RD, 6th rounder in 2025) – It hasn't been a huge breakout season for Fellinger, but he's shown some improvements this season. He's mostly been on their third pairing, but has had some games lining up on the second. He managed to surpass his point totals from last year (7) in only 33 games despite the similarly limited role he's played, with 1 goal and 7 assists on the season.

Sam McCue (LW, 7th rounder in 2024) – Someone who had a bit of hype going for him last year thanks to his goal scoring, McCue's shine is well and truly gone at this point. He got traded away from Brantford to Ottawa, his 5th team in 3 seasons in the OHL. He played one game for them on December 5th but none since then, I'm assuming because of injury.

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!