The TLN Prospect Rankings are now a week in. Borya Valis, Sam McCue, Hudson Malinoski, and Nick Moldenhauer all fit the bill of “works in progress” and certainly not players that are going to get a sniff of the Maple Leafs roster in 2025-26. Cade Webber, as a 24 year old Marlie is the one option that is pretty much in a now or never situation for making the Leafs that just barely squeezes into our loose definition of prospect.
Today, we’re going to take a look at players in similar situations to Cade Webber that are a little bit older but still have a bit of upside that the Leafs could be looking to explore. Seasoned pros like Matt Benning, Travis Boyd, and Dakota Mermis fall well into the veteran category and will offer few surprises if called upon for NHL games. This is about the options that fall on the favourable side of 30 that Brad Treliving may call upon this season for time on the Maple Leafs.
Marshall Rifai
Rifai’s place on the Maple Leafs depth chart is an interesting one. The Leafs gave Rifai a look in a couple of games in 2023-24 after a strong showing in Harvard and his first pro year with the Marlies, and then last season, while he did receive a callup or two, never found his way into the Leafs lineup.
The callups came at a time when Dakota Mermis was unavailable and the Leafs blueline was deeper in 2024-25 than in 2023-24, which could account for the lack of time given to Rifai, but it is also interesting that he was selected for the work over puck moving options like Topi Niemela or William Villeneuve, or an established veteran like Matt Benning. He was also clearly ahead of Cade Webber and Mikko Kokkonen on the depth chart and despite both being more of “prospects” Brad Treliving favoured his more reliable and proven option.
The blueline is a little bit more crowded this year and Rifai getting time with the Leafs will be even more of an uphill battle with Dakota Mermis being healthy and the addition of Rifai’s Harvard teammate, Henry Thrun, to the roster. The rise of Philippe Myers has also complicated things for Rifai, but rest assured, if the Leafs need a third pairing defender who won’t attempt anything flashy, it’s entirely possible that Rifai will play his way ahead of Mermis at some point and be the preferred callup option for Toronto.
Rifai is under contract with the Leafs for this season and next at the league minimum. The fact that he has been strong in the AHL and Leafs have considered him in callup situations might make him a bit of a risk for waivers but doesn’t change that waivers will be a reality for Rifai.
It’s entirely possible that a good camp showing and strong start to season could make a case for Rifai as a seventh defenceman role but the reality is he’s more of a career AHLer at this point but one that you don’t mind seeing called up when the Leafs blueline is decimated with injuries.
Philippe Myers
Being on this list is a reality of what is going to happen with the Leafs blueline. As much as Myers really looked the part of a 7th defenceman and made a case for challenging Simon Benoit for the 6D spot last season, he’s in a dog fight with Henry Thrun for the 7D spot and could lose out because of the allure of the mystery box and the Leafs need for puck movement on the back end.
Myers has a lot to offer. His size has a ton of appeal, but so does his heavy shot, something the Leafs have lacked in their lineup. Add in the physical presence and the trust from Craig Berube and it seems far more likely that Leafs will clear out forwards to allow for both Thrun and Myers to stay with the Leafs in 2025-26.
With two years left on his contract and a real path to the bottom pairing or retaining the 7D role, talking about Myers as a non-prospect prospect seems a little silly. The reason why it is worth considering there is more there is still a sign of more trust to be earned. Myers averaged almost two minutes less against Atlantic Division opponents than against the rest of the league and despite having more games against Atlantic Division opponents, Myers played more frequently against Metropolitan Division teams. A lot of this can be dismissed by how the schedule worked out and the health of the Leafs other defencemen, but it is a notable split.
The other notable part of Myers’ 2024-25 season is that he found a home on a pairing with Morgan Rielly. Understandably the Leafs didn’t want to make that a permanent thing and brought in Brandon Carlo, but Myers was serviceable as the defensively responsible option when needed. If not with Rielly, it may be interesting to see what Myers can do next to Henry Thrun in training camp or if the Leafs want Oliver Ekman-Larsson on the left side, is it possible that Myers could make his case for the 6th spot ahead of Benoit.
Henry Thrun
Thrun doesn’t pass the prospect vibes test despite being younger than Cade Webber. The fact that he has 119 NHL games to his name will do that, but of the defencemen mentioned so far, Thrun is the most prospect-y of them and has the most potential left to be explored.
At 24 years of age, Thrun was thrust into an NHL career largely because of the situation the Sharks are in and claiming a spot in the lineup isn’t the challenge that it will be on the Leafs. It remains to be seen if his NHL experience or his age will influence the Leafs when it comes to their 23 player roster to start the season but as of right now it’s hard to place where Thrun will measure up given that Toronto likely already feels comfortable with Oliver Ekman-Larsson as their bottom pairing puck mover.
Thrun’s near point per game pace in Harvard shouldn’t be ignored but neither should his inability to have success offensively in the NHL. The best case for Thrun might be taking time to reset in the AHL, learning the Leafs system and what is expected of him, and making his case for a role later in the year. (What’s best is probably that he figures out quickly and pushes his way up the lineup immediately, but the Leafs should start this relationship with tempered expectations.)
Thrun potentially fills an important need for a Leafs blueline that is quite old and short on puck movers. With Topi Niemela returning to Finland and Ben Danford likely being a couple of years away still, some youthful energy could be a plus for Toronto. It just might be that if there isn’t an everyday role for Thrun, the Marlies could be the better long term option.
Thrun has one year left on his deal and at $1,000,000 it is completely buriable in the AHL. That might make him a challenge for clearing waivers but re-signing him prior to the start of the season and adding some term could mitigate that risk.
Michael Pezzetta
A lot of talk so far has been about Pezzetta as a 13th or 14th forward on the Maple Leafs roster and largely taking up Ryan Reaves’ role in the press box with occasional deployment in games that require a little more oomph.
Pezzetta strictly as a cost saving measure over Reaves is fine and while the Leafs have options like Lorentz, Joshua, Domi, McMann, McCabe, Benoit, etc. that are willing to drop the gloves, having someone designated for handling the few remaining heavyweights could matter to Craig Berube and Brad Treliving. If that’s the intention, Pezzetta might not win the battles but he’ll fight them.
What seems possible with Pezzetta is that the Leafs see more in him than just fighting. If you remove last season when Pezzetta went pointless, Michael was producing at an 18 point over 82 game season pace. That’s pretty close to the results Toronto received from Steven Lorentz last season.
The addition of Dakota Joshua to the Leafs lineup certainly seems like Pezzetta will be pushed towards the Marlies (other player movement in the next month would certainly change that) but at the very least, having depth in the truculence capacity seems valuable to the Leafs.
Pezzetta is under contract with the Leafs for the next two seasons and will most certainly play games for them if waivers don’t factor in.
Benoit-Oliver Groulx
2024-25 saw Groulx on the outside looking in. After spending time in the NHL in the previous three seasons, 2024-25 was entirely spent in the AHL. Maybe that was a good thing and part of resetting him for taking a run at the NHL. Or maybe it’s the reality that Groulx is a very good AHL player that is at best going to see NHL spot duty as depth gets tested. As much as reality leans toward the spot duty approach, at 25 and having second round pick pedigree, dismissing upside completely may be premature.
Most of what has been said about Groulx is that he’s a two-way player that will adjust himself to what is required to get time in the lineup. That’s where the checking role as a fourth line centre for the Ducks was what earned him 45 games in 2023-24. A 6’2, centre that isn’t afraid to hit is something that the Leafs would see as worthwhile depth and on the Marlies it will place Groulx in a prominent role.
Nationality factors into the comparison but it seems possible the Leafs want to see if Groulx can become their own version of Alexandre Texier and be a low event Frenchman who is hard to play against. Or it could just be that the Leafs want some of what they had with Connor Dewar and Pontus Holmberg, but just further down their depth chart.
The two year commitment to Groulx is interesting and maybe the takeaway is that the Leafs are excited to work with Groulx in year one to see what type of role he can challenge for in year two, when potential depth positions open up with the expiration of the contracts for Laughton, McMann, and Jarnkrok.
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