2025 TLN Maple Leafs Prospect Rankings: #11 Jacob Quillan

The TLN Maple Leafs prospect rankings were compiled by a panel of seven TLN writers, each ranking our top 20 prospects to form a consensus group ranking. Rather than hard and fast limits on age or NHL games played to determine “prospect” eligibility, our group decided on a more nuanced approach to include any reasonably young player who is either under contract with the Leafs or on the club’s reserve list, who has not yet established himself as a full-time NHLer.

As a team pushing for playoff success year over year, the Toronto Maple Leafs have traded away plenty of draft capital to bolster their roster, leading them to supplement their prospect pool through different avenues, such as signing undrafted college free agents. A pipeline that already ranked in the bottom third of the league took another significant hit at last season’s trade deadline as the Leafs shipped out top prospect Fraser Minten in a deal to acquire Brandon Carlo from the rival Boston Bruins, but the hope within the organization is that one of those college free agent signings, Jacob Quillan, can help mitigate the loss of Minten to some degree.

Of course, Quillan doesn’t have the pedigree of being a second-round draft pick, and he doesn’t represent the same kind of upside that a player like Minten does. Still, he possesses a lot of the same traits that made Minten such an easily projectable prospect.

The runway for undrafted free agents is a lot shorter than it is for players drafted out of junior hockey, but Quillan established himself as a legitimate prospect during his first full season of professional hockey in 2024-25. It began with a strong showing in his first training camp with the Leafs, where the details in his game and defensive commitment earned him a long look from Craig Berube and his staff before he was assigned to the Marlies to begin the season. Quillan didn’t exactly light the world on fire during the first half of the AHL season, but his versatility and reliability stood out to the point where he was rewarded with a call-up for a game against the Ottawa Senators in January. It was the only NHL game Quillan would play in the 2024-25 season, but it signified that he was on the right developmental path, and it helped propel him to an impressive second half with the Marlies.

Quillan was a bit of a Swiss army knife for head coach John Gruden, playing up and down the lineup, and helping to tilt the ice in his team’s favour while chipping in with some secondary scoring, but he got more productive as the season progressed. He posted just one goal and three assists in his first 21 games of the season, but he put together a six-game point streak in December and took off from there with an increased role down the stretch, finishing his rookie year in the AHL with 18 goals and 19 assists in 67 games.