The Leafs found their HIDDEN GEM...

追加: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Toronto Maple Police have found their hidden gem. While all eyes are on their next head coach and upcoming free agency, there is a man internally on the Toronto Maple Leafs that is not only surprising everyone, but has huge implications going forward, not just on the team next year, but John Cheeka and his plans going forward this year in the upcoming draft into free agency. We're to break down exactly who this player is. But not only that, there are some other guys that fans need to talk about more down on the Marlies as well as well as tidbits surrounding, you know, the head coach and their pursuit there. Lots to go over today. Before we get into it, a quick reminder to hit that subscribe button, folks. Your guys support has been unbelievable. Darus, we're uh we're pivoting today to talking about some of the younger players on the team because a lot of these guys, especially as we approach the draft now, have some interesting implications about how John Trike is going to plan to build this team. But let's start. We need to talk about a man that we've actually covered on this channel before, but there's a very specific reason we're talking about him now, and I'm going to leave you take over here. He is an extremely extremely talented player. And as you look at, it's not just going to be uh, you know, Luke Colar that we talked about today.

[00:00:58]There's going to be a couple other names as well, but he's going to focus, he's going to be the headline of this because he has shocked a lot of people over the past few months.

[00:01:06]>> Yeah, we talked about him last year when he was drafted obviously and we were like, hey, this guy is not going to touch the NHL for a little while, but there is a lot of skill here and he has a big body and that he will at some point end up in the NHL. And we were kind of talking about it last year and he looks really good right now and I believe it's Tinus Luke Coobblar. So, um, he's been playing fantastic at the World Championships right now. I want to get to the signing in a second and what that means for his career and his development, but obviously playing at the World Championships right now. He looks fantastic. They kind of scared Canada the other day, too. But, you know, Canada took over there and won in overtime, uh, as I expected them to do.

[00:01:42]It got a little bit hairy there, but uh, he just looks really good. He's using his size to his advantage. And uh the big thing here with this signing, he's signing with Roal and he's been playing in Sweden um you know for the last couple of seasons and he's put up pretty good numbers in Sweden, but he's playing in their Junior League, which makes sense, right? Like he was just drafted last season obviously or last draft. Uh and then he went back and played another season in their Junior League, but now he's going to be playing against men.

[00:02:06]He's taken the next step in his development and he was at the World Championships. Obviously, still is right now in the in the tournament, but he's taken that next step in his development and I don't think he's going to come over for some time still. And we kind of talked about that last year, too, where it's going to be one of those prospects that we keep an eye on from afar and how he's developing and hopefully, you know, his development continues to go well outside of the organization because they don't really have their hands on him in terms of being on the Marlies. Uh, but he looks really good and again this is another guy we talk about, you know, Nancy from the Owen Sound of Attack. to talk about a couple other guys that they drafted recently under Mark Leachch that look like they could be real difference makers in a few years time. And what does he top out as? I mean, maybe a third line center, but a very skilled one at that that could uh, you know, offer a lot of depth scoring and, you know, obviously has that big body that I think uh would bode well in the playoffs as well, which you don't want just a big body just to have a big body, but a guy who can actually play and has that frame like a Slavosski for example from the Montreal Canadians. Obviously, that could bode well. So, pretty good season uh last season and he's going to continue that, you know, playing with Roel next season.

[00:03:10]>> Yeah, I was he's super young. He's only 18. So, in the intro and I referred to guys who are going to have an impact next season. Stay tuned for those guys.

[00:03:15]There's a couple of them in. But also, as you build a team, you do have to kind of look at and again, his stats aren't going to jump off the page, but at the same time, I think, yeah, 2025 draft in the second round. He could top out. You can see this tweets talk about him topping out potentially as the next second line center for the Toronto Maple Leafs. And we have a fresh slate now for the first time in over a decade, right?

[00:03:34]We're going to see a ton of new prospects. I'm not saying that Thomas Lucar is going to play for the Leafs next year. 0% chance that happens, but going forward, just seeing how they all fit into what's going to be an interesting kind of puzzle here. And again, he's 18 years old, but his SHL production is in the same range as Louis Ericson, Kevin Fiala, Adrien Kempy, and a couple other guys as well. And as you start to look at it, it's obviously very early, very, very early to tell. Some people are projecting him as a third line center. Either way here, having guys in the system that are performing well is going to be crucial. you look at his, you know, some of his charts and things like that, he's been pretty solid. Is he a superstar? No. He's never going to be a superstar, but when we covered him in the draft, they also didn't draft him for him to be that 30, 40 goal scorer. He's going to be a power forward. He's going to be someone who plays well. So, comment down below what your thoughts are on that. Maybe he's the future second line center for this team, third line center. You look at kind of the projected lineups right now.

[00:04:22]A little bit of a mess, but I do want to dive into somebody you actually see right here. And this guy, I think, is a bit of a secret weapon for this team.

[00:04:28]And there's obviously two of them we're going to talk about. But I'll dive into William Villanovv later on in the video.

[00:04:32]But Daryus, obviously we have to talk about a man who's kind of taken over now over the past, you know, few weeks. And the reason is that he's not going to be a star once again, but this team does need a third or fourth line center. And I think Ryan has a very good chance now to actually turn into somebody who has an impact as soon as next season depending how things fall out, what other moves they make. But this is a guy that may have a pretty big impact on whether they want to go out and sign one in free agency, whether they want to make a trade for a fourth or third line center. He can factor into that fourth line and see what he can do.

[00:05:02]>> Yeah, if you're taking a look at the NHL playoffs right now at the Stanley Cup playoffs, I should say, you know, there's a lot of players that you go, where did this team get this guy from?

[00:05:09]And he was just developed and called up from the AHL, right? And I I look at the Leafs moving forward and I go, we can't do the old sign a guy that's 35 or 37 years old at the end of his career and he's going to help the third line and the fourth line or something like that.

[00:05:24]That no more of that, right? You have to utilize the Marlies. And this whole narrative too that they have no draft picks and that they have no prospects is just not true, right? And it's just something that people like to throw around because it makes, you know, it sounds bad, right? Obviously makes the Leafs look bad, right? It's not necessarily true. Ryan Torberg again, is he going to be a differencemaker at the NHL level? Maybe not. But I could see him in a third, maybe fourth line role where he's just buzzing around and gives you that energy, right? And maybe he can chip in for a goal. And he had a pretty solid season. He's having a good playoffs, too. There was a scrum at the end of the game. They forced the game five uh with help from him as well. Got a goal there. Um and they're forcing, you know, deciding game five because for some reason only the last two rounds of the AHL playoffs are seven game series.

[00:06:08]But uh they're playing that in Cleveland and he's been a big part of that team for a while at this point. And we saw him a very small sample size in the NHL.

[00:06:16]He can skate in the NHL. So I wonder if he gets a look next year. Of course, nothing is just given to any player.

[00:06:22]Everyone's going to have to come into camp. And I think there's going to be a lot of healthy competition next season coming in just like last year to a degree, but it it never really happened because I think there was a vendetta against certain players because they were drafted by the past regime. I don't know if that's going to be the case anymore. So guys like Villain of guys like Twarberg next season might get a chance if they're the best players right and they fit into those roles they might actually get an opportunity to play in those roles which long time ago for multiple seasons under Kyle Dubis' regime you didn't get that production out of Marley's they weren't able to call out Marlies that were going to make any difference right but you have a couple guys now I think down there that can and look hungry to do that so why wouldn't you give them at least the opportunity to do that and of course if they don't stick they don't stick a lot of guys won't right But when you look at guys like uh Cooblar as well, Luke Coobblar, um you know, he's another guy with a lot of raw skill that can come in potentially be a great player down the road and he was a draft pick of Mark Leeches, right? And there's a lot of guys in the first round that don't ever play in the NHL. And if you can get one out of the second round, if you can get a couple of these guys with the Marlies right now to play, uh then you are looking pretty good. So, and obviously they have to give you good minutes, right? But I like a lot of what I'm seeing from a few Marlies right now. And keep an eye on Noah Chadwick, too. I I don't know if he's going to make the NHL, but just keep an eye on him that uh I think they got to stop u letting guys ripen too much with the Marlies, right?

[00:07:44]Like, oh no, no, no, he's not ready yet.

[00:07:46]He's not ready yet. And they keep him down there till he's 25, 26 years old and it's like, well, now you don't even have a player, right? And they end up going somewhere else and maybe, you know, they're Alex Steves for the the Boston Bruins, right? So, they got to stop doing that stuff as well. They got to let some of these guys take these roles if they look like they're able to do that. So, we'll see what happens moving into next season. But, uh this whole narrative about uh do they have less draft picks than other teams? Yes.

[00:08:09]Do they have maybe less top prospects than other teams? Yes. But the fact that like this whole narrative about they don't have anything in the cupboard.

[00:08:17]It's zero. They're doomed. There's nobody coming. They're going to have to sign Darren Radish to $15 million to make it work next season. I I don't know if that's true.

[00:08:25]>> Yeah. And obviously, I showed this earlier. This was the lineup for the last game of last season. So, you can kind of see how they were kind of feeling. And things are going to change obviously and no Matthews cuz he was he was out. But you look at it and I mean we saw Torberg last year they gave the guys a chance. Obviously Pizzetta is probably not going to be I think it was April 16th whenever one of their last game was.

[00:08:42]>> It is a very it's going to be crazy to see the drastic difference but also if they don't make any more moves you're going to have to add some guys. All right. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens going forward. One other name to keep an eye out on is William Villanovv. You can see here he was uh that was least William Villinov league's tying ninth assist of the NHL playoffs. So keep an eye on Villanovv as well folks and we'll have more videos coming on him. So we'll save most of that. Thank you guys for watching. We'll see you later.