Leafs Top 50 Prospects – Matthew Hlacar

The Toronto Maple Leafs organization has drafted and developed a number of youngsters currently playing in the NHL (Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Morgan Rielly, Matthew Knies), but the club under former GM’s Kyle Dubas and Brad Treliving, and new GM John Chayka have had different ideas of what kind of prospects they wanted to populate the organization with. 

As we’ve done on a yearly basis, we will be ranking the club’s top prospects over the upcoming weeks based on their progress in either the NCAA, CHL, Europe, ECHL, or AHL, and their potential to make the Leafs roster and make a contribution in the future.

Players are eligible for the list if they have not played more than 82 NHL games and are 25 years old or younger:

Leafs Prospect List

#50 – Blake Smith – D (Toronto – AHL)

#49 – Henrik Rybinski – F (Hershey – AHL)

#48 – Sawyer Boulton – F (Reading – ECHL, Lehigh Valley – AHL)

#47 – Cole McWard – D (Bridgeport – AHL, NY Islanders – NHL)

#46 – Rylan Fellinger – D (Flint – OHL)

#45 – Sam Stevens – F (Cincinnati – ECHL, Toronto – AHL) 

#44 –  Brody Pepoy – F (Saginaw – OHL)

#43 –   Matt Lahey – D (Michigan State – NCAA)  

#42 –  Yaroslav Fedoseyev – D (Chelyabinsk Clemet – VHL, Chelyabinsk Traktor – KHL)

#41 – Cade Webber – D (Toronto – AHL) 

#40 – Matthew Hlacar – F (Kitchener – OHL)

The seventh round of an NHL draft is when a particular scout gets to take a flyer on a player who may intrigue them. With their final pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, the Maple Leafs selected Matthew Hlacar of the Kitchener Rangers. The 6’3”, 205 lb. forward was drafted as an overager after coming out of the Greater Ontario Hockey League in 2024 and playing 43 OHL games last season.

Hlacar’s skills are more focused on physicality and pugilism than anything else. The 20-year-old scored seven goals in 2024-25 and dropped the gloves eight times. He showed off those pugilistic instincts at the Leafs Development Camp last year when he fought with defenseman Rhett Parsons.

Last season, he was part of the Rangers Memorial Cup-winning squad, scored 12 points (6 goals, 6 assists), and continued to be a menace with 91 penalty minutes, earnin a six-game suspension early in the year for a late hit against the Soo Greyhounds. He will undoubtedly return to Kitchener this fall in hopes of making progress and getting on the Leafs radar, since he has a year to earn a professional contract, unless he chooses to go the NCAA route.