Maple Leafs’ 5 Best NCAA Additions of the Past Decade

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As the Toronto Maple Leafs embark on the stretch run of the 2024-25 NHL season amidst a tight battle for top spot in the Atlantic Division, the front office has clearly been keeping an eye on the college ranks. In the past week, the club has inked Union College defenceman John Prokop and Dartmouth centre Luke Haymes from the NCAA.

The pursuit of college prospects makes plenty of sense for the Maple Leafs right now, after surrendering two first-round picks and prospects Fraser Minten and Nikita Grebenkin at the 2025 Trade Deadline to further strip what is already a rather thin farm system. It’s a process that the club is no stranger to, having gone the college route all the way back to when Gonzaga alum Frank McCool backstopped Toronto to the 1945 Stanley Cup.

The signing of collegiate players doesn’t guarantee NHL success. The Maple Leafs have signed many players over the years out of the NCAA ranks, but only a few have gone onto have meaningful, impactful careers at hockey’s highest level. In fact, only a handful of players signed by the organization out of college in recent years has reached the NHL. Within that group, though, there are some standout names.

With Prokop and Haymes serving as the latest NCAA alums to sign on the dotted line with the Maple Leafs, it feels like a good time to look back at the club’s success rate of college signings by ranking the top-five biggest NCAA-to-Toronto success stories of the past decade:

5. Alex Steeves (Notre Dame)

Coming out of Notre Dame, it was a 15-goal, 32-point season in 2020-21 for the Fighting Irish that helped Alex Steeves secure a three-year, entry-level contract with the Maple Leafs. Although the Minnesota native was the school’s leading scorer and earned Second Team All-Big Ten honours, he was overshadowed by Wisconsin’s Cole Caufield, the Conference’s player of the year, and a loaded Michigan squad that would be represented with four of the top-five picks in that summer’s NHL Entry Draft.

While Caufield and Michigan alums Owen Power, Matty Beniers, and Kent Johnson have hit the ground running in the NHL, Steeves has made the most of his time with the Toronto Marlies. This season, the 25-year-old broke the Marlies’ all-time goal-scoring record. He also recorded his first-career NHL goal with the Maple Leafs upon getting called up. Although he’s back in the American Hockey League (AHL) for now, he should get more opportunities to stick around as a permanent NHLer in the near future.

4. Bobby McMann (Colgate)

In a season during which Bobby McMann has managed to record 20 goals at the NHL level, it’s worth looking back on how unlikely his hockey journey has been. The 28-year-old Wainwright, Alberta native spent four years at Colgate University, a prestigious academic school that isn’t exactly known as a hockey hotbed (although it did produce the likes of Mike Milbury and Andy McDonald). While he never dominated the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC), he did earn a Hobey Baker Award nomination as the Raiders’ captain in his senior year.

McMann’s leadership and competitiveness ultimately caught the attention of the Maple Leafs’ organization. After a brief stint in the ECHL, he offered the franchise more than they were expecting with 24 goals for the Marlies in 2020-21. Since then, he’s become a mainstay at the NHL level, with 35 goals over the past two seasons for the Maple Leafs.

3. Trevor Moore (Denver)

Toronto can take some credit for the NCAA-to-NHL path of Trevor Moore, even if another NHL club has better reaped the benefits of his development.

Moore was an undrafted free agent signed after a successful three-year stint at the University of Denver that earned him a spot on the NCAA Second All-American Team in his sophomore season. The 5-foot-11 winger enjoyed three solid campaigns with the Marlies, even helping the club hoist the Calder Cup in 2018. However, he struggled in parts of two seasons with the Maple Leafs before being dealt to Los Angeles at the 2019 Trade Deadline as part of a package used to land Jack Campbell and Kyle Clifford.

Trevor Moore Los Angeles Kings
Trevor Moore has taken major strides in his development since joining the Los Angeles Kings (Jess Starr/The Hockey Writers)

Since joining his hometown Kings, Moore’s career has taken off. With his 30th birthday looming, he has now recorded 86 goals and 109 points in 354 games with the Kings, including last season’s 31-goal breakout. While Campbell was certainly a valuable addition with the Maple Leafs for a brief time, the development of Moore and the drafting of Sean Durzi made the trade worthwhile for the Kings as well.

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2. Matthew Knies (Minnesota)

Currently in the midst of a 25-goal season, it feels like Matthew Knies is just getting started. Fans were expecting big things as the 22-year-old Phoenix, Arizona native made his way to the club after two seasons spent starring at the University of Minnesota, and he is now delivering on that promise.

After scoring 15 goals last season in his first full NHL campaign, Knies has catapulted to 25 goals and 49 points while maintaining a stranglehold on the top-line left wing spot, flanking Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. The pending restricted free agent promises to only get better and could eventually count as the franchise’s most successful NCAA alumnus ever. Barring an unexpected development, he could also stand as the rare player to go from the college ranks to the NHL without ever suiting up in the AHL. The club is clearly enamored with the power forward, as they were reportedly unwilling to include him in a trade package to land then-Carolina Hurricane Mikko Rantanen.

1. Zach Hyman (Michigan)

Granted, Zach Hyman doesn’t fit the same mold as the other four as an undrafted free agent signed by the Maple Leafs. He was actually drafted by the Florida Panthers in the fifth round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, but could not come to terms on a contract and instead opted to enroll at Michigan. He spent four seasons with the Wolverines, culminating in leading the Big Ten in scoring (22 goals and 54 points in 37 games) in his senior year.

Florida’s loss was ultimately the Maple Leafs’ gain. Toronto acquired Hyman’s rights once his senior season at Michigan was completed. From there, he became a fan favourite and top line mainstay over six seasons with the Maple Leafs. Upon joining the Edmonton Oilers as a free agent in the summer of 2021, his offensive numbers skyrocketed alongside Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. In 2023-24 alone, he recorded 54 regular season goals and scored 16 more in the playoffs to help the Oilers advance to the Stanley Cup Final.

While this quintet of players highlights the potential upside of college-developed hockey players, far larger is the list of NCAA signees that have failed to make it in Toronto. The Maple Leafs know that they face long odds for either Prokop or Haymes to realize the same level of success as any of these aforementioned five, but their additions represent fairly low-risk gambles that they can unearth another pro-ready hockey star out of the collegiate ranks.

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