Toronto Maple Leafs
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🖊 We've signed centre Luke Haymes to a two-year contract beginning in the 2025-26 season.
He will join the Toronto Marlies (AHL) for the remainder of the 2024-25 season on an amateur tryout.
Article on him from last week.
Luke Haymes is among the top free agents out of the NCAA this year, and Toronto has been heavily rumoured to be among the front runners to sign him. Is he worth the interest, or are there other options the Leafs should take a run at signing?
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Luke Haymes
Let's start with Haymes, who is the most relevant for two reasons – he has pretty strong ties to Toronto, and he is considered to be the best free agent coming out of the NCAA this year. For the first part, the Maple Leafs have been rumoured to be one of the most likely teams to sign him for most of this season, so Toronto has definitely been interested in him. What may help him decide to sign with Toronto over the other teams pushing hard for him is that the Leafs have a history of showing that interest. Haymes was part of Toronto's summer development camp for prospects back in 2023.
As far as how good Haymes is as a prospect, it's funny that in that linked development camp article I mentioned I wasn't very interested in him at the time. Well, in the season right after that Haymes had his breakout season, with 18 goals and 36 points in 31 games for Darmouth, more than doubling his previous season. He led the team in goals by 3 and in points by 11 despite being one of their younger players. His production at his age is on par with some of the better drafted prospects in the NCAA – not the true elite prospects mind you, but in the same range of the likes of Bradley Nadeau, Frank Nazar, and Isaac Howard.
Now, I give a slight penalty for playing in a weaker NCAA conference where the competition is easier. But there are two things that Haymes has going for him as an undrafted NCAA prospect: he's pretty young compared to most college free agents at only 21 years old, and his strengths and play style are very conducive to pro hockey. He has pro size at 6'1" and 192 lbs. In the offensive zone he has a bit of a power game, and generates a lot of quality scoring chances for himself. He achieves this by being a smart and physical player, winning board battles and getting pucks to the middle of the ice. He's also a capable defensive centre, helping push play in the right direction for his team.
I may not have been interested in Haymes much in the summer of 2023, but I am now. His weaknesses to work on would be based on his passing and transition play, but in the offensive and defensive zones he is already a menace. If Haymes' learned a lot from that development camp and turned it into a breakout season, he may be more likely to sign here thinking that if we helped him so much after just that brief time around the organization, we can help him even more if he's sticking around full time.
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