Scouting Toronto's 2026 Development Camp Roster

The development camp is here! It's not as interesting to follow these days, since they made the (probably smart) decision to not have a full scrimmage last summer since they had some noteworthy prospects suffer injuries in back to back years. No idea if they're sticking to that this year, but I'd assume so.

Still, I always find it interesting to see the interviews with players and coaches to hear what they're working on with each player. In the past, we've also seen the odd player get an AHL or even NHL/ELC contract out of their participation, and some of them are often included in their Rookie Tournament roster later in the summer. I will selfishly say I hope they bring back the scrimmage so we can see some real star prospects for the first time in a number of years in game action!

Sure the rookie tournament is coming up after where we can see them, but what are we supposed to be patient and wait that long???

Drafted & Signed Players

McKenna is the obvious headliner, but all of the forwards they just drafted will be there as well. From previous drafts, Koblar will be there and the idea of him centering McKenna makes me happy. Holinka, Hopkins and Nansi will also be there. Likewise, all of Toronto's defensemen who they've drafted in the past few years are attending except for Nathan Mayes, whose rights they lost after not signing him. I don't know if we'll get a scrimmage, since they cut it last year after a couple years in a row of guys getting hurt.

In net, we have a real life sighting of Timofei Obvintsev who I was not certain was even alive after he barely dressed or played in Russia for each of the last two years. I don't know if they can arrange for somewhere he can actually play in Russia or have him come here and get some ECHL time or something, but my dude just needs to PLAY. They also have the two new goalies they just drafted, Ainasto and Plumins.

If there is no scrimmage, I'm mostly looking forward to seeing Toronto's various coaches and execs talking about the players and give some updates for who's playing where and what they're working on.

Here's the full list of the Leafs' prospects who are attending:

Aside from that, I mainly want to look at the various prospects that Toronto invited to this dev camp. I'll just look at them player by player and say if I'm interested in them as a potential signing or not. If I'm interested, I'll add more details why.

There are 26 of these invites this year, which is even more than last year. Let's test my patience and glutton for punishment!

FORWARDS

Mick Thompson – One of the few of these forwards I actually heard of and remembered, though it helps he was at last year's Dev Camp. He's a former Chicago Steel guy now on Harvard – a classic pipepline for former Leaf prospects. He's a 22 year old 5'9" winger, and has had decent production for a team that hasn't been very good the past two years. He actually led the team in points with 27, ahead of the second best teammate by 7 points. I'll say mild interest, but his type with his size, unless he has pretty elite skill or all around skills he would probably top out as a solid AHL guy.

Judah Makway – He's a 6'3", 21 year old center who played for Alaska-Anchorage last year and transferred to Maine for this coming season. He played in the BCHL before hand. While he played middle-six minutes, his point production on a very low-scoring team was on the very low side. Not very interested.

Ryan Johnson – Johnson is a 23 year old 5'10" center, and he was Makway's teammate on Alaska-Anchorage, and had almost double his points. He's transferred to New Hampshire for this coming season. He was at last year's dev camp and I don't remember that at all. So considering that, his age and size and team, I'm also not interested.

Parker Lalonde – A 22 year old 6'1" winger, also from Merrimack College in the NCAA last year for his freshman season. He had 37 points in 38 games, which actually led his team as a freshman with two NHL draft picks on the roster. He was actually a finalist for NCAA rookie of the year award. I'm moderately interested to see if he has anything else to his game.

Charlie Major – A 21 year old 5'10" winger who had 27 points in 32 games in his sophomore season for Cornell University last year, which was good for fourth on the team. He looks like a decent skater with a good shot, but I can't find much else about the other elements of his game. I have more than zero interest, but not much more than that.

Felix Caron – A 21 year old 6'0" right winger who, stop me if you've heard this before, played in the NCAA last year. He played his sophomore year on Ohio State and had a decent season, with 30 points in 37 games. That was good for 3rd on a decent team on a decent conference in college. I have moderate interest in him, depending on how he looks outside of the points.

Kieran Cebrian – A 23 year old 6'2" center who played pretty healthy minutes for the NCAA champion University of Denver. His points were middling, but from the bit of highlights I've found he has a bit of skill but is one of the coaches favourites for being reliable and doing a lot of the little things right. He's played his four college seasons so he's most definitely looking for a contract, and I can see him getting an AHL/ECHL contract.

Jack Galanek – A 20 year old 6'0" center who just played his freshman season for UMass in the NCAA. His 24 points in 36 games was good for third on the team in one of the better conferences in college, and I can see some past scouting reports giving him good grades for his motor, ability to establish body positioning, and give-and-go style. He's younger and only just had a good but not great freshman season, I'm assuming there's no contract coming for a couple of years yet.

Landon Hanson – A teammate of Holinka and MacKenzie on the Edmonton Oil Kings this past season, he's aged out of junior and is joining Sacred Heart University in the NCAA next year. He had a decent season, with 55 points in 68 games, playing in more of a depth/supporting player role. He's a 6'0" winger, and like Galanek he's not likely going to be looking for or deserving a contract right now.

Aleksi Kivioja – A 22 year old 6'5" center who has played two seasons for Providence College in the NCAA. I was pretty sure that he had been at a past development camp for the Leafs but I can't see that he did, so I guess his name was just familiar after being teammates with Hudson Malinoski those two years. He's Finnish born who only came to North America to play in the USHL in preparation for the NCAA, and from his entire profile he looks like a big defense first center. Not very interested barring some really good defensive skills.

Sam Alfano – A 22 year old 6'4" right winger who finished his OHL career with Erie two years ago, then played his freshman season for Arizona State last year. He had 18 points in 35 games, which was 5th on the team with four NHL forward prospects on the roster. He's transferred to Maine this coming year. I have more than zero interest, but not much more than that.

Logan Morrell – A 22 year old 6'3" center who also played for Arizona State last season, which was his sophomore year. He played his freshman season for Michigan Tech, where he had a better year in terms of points. From what I can tell he does a lot of his damage on the powerplay, where he seems to have pretty legitimate net-front skills for deflections and backdoor tap ins. Moderate interest, enough to see if he has any other strengths to his game outside of his offense or powerplay skills.

Tobias Pitka – A 20 year old 6'4" center from Slovakia who... once again... played in the NCAA last year. He had 12 points in 25 games for Northern Michigan but is transferring to UMass-Lowell next year. That was actually 2nd on the team, despite playing fewer games, and they were very low-scoring as a team. I'll admit I'm mildly interested since he was in the NCAA a year earlier than most others, and who knows maybe he has a better skillset to offer than could be shown on what looks to be a very bad team.

Nick Roukounakis – A 22 year old 6'2" left winger who played a depth role for Boston University, historically a very strong program in one of the two best conferences. Though I will say that from what I heard, the team was a bit of a hot mess last year. He had 7 points in 25 games, a very small improvement on his freshman season. From his history he looks like he's never been an offensive driver, but given he was good enough to make the roster for a top program, I have some mild interest to see what his non-offensive skills look like.

Parker Vaughan – An 18 year old! Not from a college team! He's a 6'1" right winger who played on North Bay in the OHL last year. He was a former 5th overall pick in the OHL draft known as a power forward with puck skills, but his offense never really materialized in junior yet. He had 33 points in 68 games on a not-great offensive team, but what he did have was excellent defensive impacts, decent transitions, and solid off-puck skills. Elite Prospects' draft guide really liked his foundational skills and as a potential checking forward with hopes for his offensive skills to finally come together in a breakout. I'm guessing there's no contract coming until that breakout has already happened. So I wouldn't expect much.

DEFENSEMEN

Zackary Sandhu – Danford's long time defensive partner, following him from Oshawa to Brantford last season. He's 20 years old, 6'2" and a left-shot, with an extremely defense-focused style. He did a good job of it in junior, and I've liked him enough I can see him getting an AHL/ECHL deal.

Quinn Mantei – A 21 year old 6'0" left shot defenseman who played on Providence last year for his freshman season. He had 11 points in 36 games on a team known for their hard, physical and defensive style. He led the team in both penalty minutes and plus-minus, so I'll say mildly interested.

Richard Baran – Another Arizona State guy, he's a 20 year old 6'1" left-shot defenseman from Slovakia who doesn't have much history of being an offensive guy. So I'll want to see what his non-offensive skill looks like before making any call on him.

Frank Djurasevic – Oh he's already under contract by the Marlies. Missed that. And too lazy to update the image of the table I made. So here he stays.

Niklas Blessing – Now here's someone novel. Blessing is a 19 year old 5'11" left-shot defenseman who hasn't played outside of Switzerland in his life. He played the vast majority of last season for EHC Biel-Bienne in the top pro league there, with 14 points in 47 games. He was also part of Switzerland's World Juniors roster and played some less important international games for the Men's team. Despite being a bit smaller he's pretty beefy at 192 lbs. I have some moderate interest in seeing what he looks like.

Matyas Man – A 20 year old 6'5" left shot defenseman from Czechia who was an import player for Prince Albert in the WHL last year. He played more of a defensive depth role on a very good team that lost in the WHL finals. I'll want to see how his real-time skating, defense and skill looks, but in the highlights below you can see his flashes of puck handling, passing, and shooting that looks not bad at all. Call me mildly interested, and at his age he's probably looking for a potential contract somewhere, unless he's working on an NCAA commitment – as of writing this, he doesn't have one.

DJ Hart – Great name. A 24 year old 6'3" right shot defenseman who has played three seasons for Union College in the NCAA. He's not an offensive guy, and he was apparently at last year's camp? I have zero memory of him so I'm gonna say not very interested considering he's already 24.

Jack Hewitt – A 23 year old 6'0" right shot defenseman, who has played the past two years for Brown in the NCAA playing pretty few games and having virtually no points. From all the info I can find about him, I'm not very interested.

Nikita Voyaga – An 18 year old 6'3" left shot defenseman who just went undrafted for the first time, Voyaga is a Russian-born import playing on Charlottetown in the QMJHL. Not much points, his impacts make it clear he's a defensive defenseman. He played most of the year on the third pair, in the Elite Prospects draft guide they gave him good grades for his retrievals and playing a "mean" and stifling style of defense. Mild interest, but given his age he's not likely to sign any contract.

GOALIES

Patriks Berzins – Apparently the Leafs saw Patriks Plumins name and assumed the plural it meant they needed to have more than one Latvian goalie named Patriks. He's 22, 6'1" and played for St Cloud in the NCAA last year as their 1B goalie. Not very interested.

Ethan McCallum – A 20 year old 6'4" goalie who split last season between Saskatoon and Penticton in the WHL. His numbers were pretty bad on Saskatoon, but were very good on Penticton as their primary backup. He has a commitment to the NCAA already, so probably doesn't need a contract.

Sebastian Gatto – Another return from last year, apparently, he's a 20 year old 6'4" goalie who played on London in the OHL last year. He narrowly edged Medvedev for playing the most games (38) but he had much better stats in his starts. At his age he may be looking for a contract, and/or an NCAA commitment. I have some mild interest, if they need an ECHL goalie now that they didn't qualify Peksa.

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!