Leafs Top 50 Prospects – Hayes Hundley

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)
• #39 – Will Belle – RW (US Nat’l Development Program)
• #38 –  Cooper Williams – C (Saskatoon – WHL)
• #37 – Patriks Plumins – G (Zemgale – Latvia)
• #36 – Chas Sharpe – D (Toronto – AHL)

#35 –   Hayes Hundley – D (St. Thomas – NCAA, Toronto – AHL)

In one of his final moves as Leafs GM, Treliving went down the undrafted college free-agent route once again, signing another big right-handed blueliner, Hayes Hundley. The Ohio native played his youth hockey in the Blue Jackets program in Columbus. He went undrafted through two drafts, playing 2023-24 with Johnstown in the NAHL and a full season in the USHL with Fargo. The 6’3″, 207 lb. defenseman posted pedestrian offensive numbers (4 goals, 12 assists in 58 games) with the Force, but compiled 74 penalty minutes.

Last season, he jumped to the NCAA to play Division 1 for the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota and had 12 points (6 goals, 6 assists) in 38 games. The Leafs were apparently intrigued by the physical package and the youth of Hundley and signed him to a three-year entry-level deal in late March. He played one game for the AHL Marlies at the end of last season on an amateur tryout, so the ELC does not kick in until the upcoming season.

“He’s raw, but has definitely some huge upside to what he could become,” Marlies head coach John Gruden said to the Toronto Sun in March. “You can see it in the skating, you can see it in the size. There’s definitely something there. We have a really good scouting staff and they’re not just going to pick his name out of a hat. When you’re an organization looking for right-handed defencemen … it’s our job as a staff to help him along that path.”

Clearly, the 20-year-old has not flashed anything to warrant hope of being a top prospect. At this point, Toronto took a free swing on a player and is hoping to see some development over the balance of his deal.