Maple Leafs Prospect Report: Last Week's Three Stars

I wasn't originally going to do anything like this, and I may not do it very much going forward, but there were a few noteworthy performances and the "Three Stars" was some convenient framing for it. I didn't want to wait to talk about them until I did more full profiles on each player, so I'll give a special shout out to the following three (and three extra minor shouts) players.

Alexander Plesovskikh

Last week: 4 goals, 1 assist in 3 games
Season to date: 10 goals, 9 assists in 16 games

Plesovskikh is once again a man of many highs and lows. He started the season with 6 points in his first two games, then had 3 points in the next 6 games, and since then has had 10 points in his last 7 games including a 5 game goal streak. His ice time has also ticked up, with him playing 18+ minutes in each of his last 4 games.

Sam McCue

Last week: 4 goals, 1 assist in 2 games
Season to date: 6 goals, 3 assists in 9 games

McCue is fresh off of announcing his commitment next year to an NCAA college, which will help elongate the period Toronto retains his rights before they have to sign him... I think. Cathy can correct that if I'm wrong. But his start to the season was slow, and he found himself bumped from the top line to the third. Whether it was a boost from not being distracted about college recruitment or him finding a better fit on the new line, he went off this past weekend with back to back multi-goal games on Friday and Saturday. It was enough to bring him to a point per game on the season.

Tinus Luc Koblar

Last week: 1 goal, 1 assist in 2 games
Season to date: 2 goals, 1 assists in 10 SHL games

Koblar's stock on his own SHL team has been rising steadily since he first joined them. While the team is on a streak losing 7 of their last 8 games, and the coach has been benching the veteran stars, or moving them down the lineup, one of the beneficiaries has been Koblar. His ice time has risen from being around 10 minutes per game, to around 12-13, to reaching just under 19 minutes in his most recent game. He's started to get used on the powerplay and the penalty kill, and he's getting shout outs as one of the lone bright spots amidst a frustrating stretch of losing by his coach and teammates.

Ben Danford

Last week: 1 goal, 1 assist in 3 games
Season to date: 10 goals, 9 assists in 16 games

As expected, since being loaned back to Oshawa, Danford has been used a lot more than ever before. On a team that lost a lot of their top talent, including on defense, he's now not just their top defenseman at even strength and on the penalty kill, but is also now on their powerplay. I'm going to guess that's why his shot rate has increased by 1.5 shots to almost 4 per game. I was hoping this would happen for him, and it would help him work on his offensive game. The assist he had was a very nice one, spotting a teammate in front calling for the puck off to the side, and he fired a nice fake shot/pass right on the guy's tape to set up the goal. And for good measure, he added a huge open ice hit that led to him having to fight because that's what you have to do after landing a clean hit apparently.

Honorary Mentions

There were some other good, but not spectacular performances I wanted to call out at least in brief.

Harry Nansi – Nansi didn't set the world on fire to the same extent as the others mentioned above, but he still had a very nice week. In four games, he scored three times. Once was short handed, where he showed off some of his improved speed. The other two came on the powerplay, one showing off some nifty mittens and the other involving a power move to the net. I'll have a full profile on him later this week!

Miroslav Holinka – Technically, this week including last Monday would mean Holinka had 7 points in 4 games. But I already included that huge 2 goal, 5 point game in last week's update because of the holiday. Even still, Holinka had a decent week with two assists (officially!) in three games. I say officially, because he's been robbed of another assist he should have gotten after winning a faceoff and knocking the puck to Joe Iginla who immediately spun and fired it for the goal. So he should have had three assists in three games, but thems the breaks. He's up to 7 goals and 13 points (should be 14!) in 9 games to lead the team in both categories.

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!