Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander. With those four high-scoring forwards and over 200 points between them, there is no way the Toronto Maple Leafs can get any better offensively, right?
Maybe not in the short term.
Both Tavares and Marner have one more season under contract before they hit free agency. If neither of them returns, Toronto needs a plan for building their offense and complementing their stars. Matthews and Nylander both signed extensions that will keep them with the Maple Leafs until at least 2028, but those two alone are not going to be enough. Sure, they can grab star forwards in free agency over the next few offseasons, but Toronto has a wealth of talent in its own backyard.
That is where the Maple Leafs’ young stars come into play, with one in particular who could be a long-term asset. No, I am not talking about former Minnesota Golden Gopher Matthew Knies or Dallas Stars forward Jason Robertson’s younger brother, Nicholas. I am talking about 21-year-old forward Ryan Tverberg.
Before beginning his collegiate career in Storrs, Tverberg spent time with the Toronto Jr. Canadiens organization, advancing from their U16 team to the Ontario Junior Hockey League. The Ontario native scored 26 goals and 51 points in 47 games with the junior A team during the 2019-20 season. 38 of Tverberg’s points and 20 of his goals that season came before he committed to Harvard University in December of 2019.
Six months after the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the 2020 OJHL playoffs, Toronto drafted the 5-foot-11 forward with the 213th pick in the National Hockey League Entry Draft. Before he started his professional career, the 12th-round pick in the seventh-round selection flipped from the Crismon to head coach Mike Cavanaugh and the UConn men’s hockey team. Whether the Ivy League’s cancellation of all sports in the 2020-21 academic year impacted his decision or not remains uncertain, but the Ice Bus got a superstar.
Tverberg hit the ground running from his arrival a semester early the following spring with seven points in 14 games. Following that rookie campaign, the seventh-round pick took a major leap forward as a scoring machine. His 32 points in 36 games as a sophomore earned Tverberg a Second Team All-American selection and a Hobey Baker Award nomination as college hockey’s best player. Following his junior season, where he led the Huskies with 16 goals, the Ontario native signed a three-year entry-level contract with the team that drafted him.
It brought Tverberg to the Maple Leafs’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Toronto Marlies. He did not score once in the seven games he appeared in last season, but the seventh-round draft pick made up for his slow start at the professional level with 20 points in 20 contests as of yesterday. Despite missing almost two months with a leg injury, the Ontario native is tied for seventh on the Marlies in scoring with University of Denver alum Dylan Gambrell.
Against the Belleville Senators nearly two weeks ago, Tverberg became the first player in team history (and ninth in the AHL’s history) to score four goals in one period. He scored three times on the power play and all four times from around the same spot on the ice where Washington Capitals’ left-winger Alexander Ovechkin routinely buries the puck. While it might be a stretch to compare a 21-year-old center to a left winger who ranks second in NHL history with 830 career goals, the two-time Hockey East All-Star Team selection could become a major scoring threat.
Getting to the Leafs’ first line, let alone their top six, will not be easy for Tverberg, even with the skillset that he has. Matthews and Nylander reign supreme as the team’s top scorers, but the Ontario native could get a jumpstart to his NHL career as a valuable bottom-six forward piece. Currently, Toronto’s bottom six, as projected by the Daily Faceoff, includes veterans Max Domi and Calle Järnkrok on the third line.
The entire fourth line has as many points combined as Domi does (24) as of yesterday. Tverberg spent most of his UConn career as a center, but Elite Prospects acknowledges that he could also play on the right wing. Both David Kämpf and Noah Gregor are listed as centers on the NHL’s website, so having the point-per-game forward play to either of their rights could be massive for Toronto’s forward depth.
Should he go on a noticeable tear early on with the fourth line, Tverberg could see significant playing time on the Maple Leafs’ third line. A spot on the second powerplay unit might also be in the cards; the Huskies’ former assistant captain had nine in three years in Storrs. It would provide a huge boost for a Toronto offense averaging 3.49 goals on 33.2 shots.
Knies’ playoff performance last year is Tverberg’s potential ceiling when he gets promoted. The former Golden Gopher went from playing in a national championship game to assisting Tavares’ overtime winner that broke Toronto’s 20-year playoff series drought in the same building within three weeks. Recording exactly one point (coincidentally in Tampa against the Lightning) in three regular-season games, Knies became an impactful left winger in the playoffs and contributed to the Leafs’ success until he got injured. It might be hard to replicate what the 2021 second-round pick did, but with his energy and offensive skillset, the Ontario native could come close.
Calgary Flames defenseman Yan Kuznetsov (who was also drafted in 2020) was the most recent UConn alum to make their NHL debut on Jan. 9. While no one knows specifically when it could happen, Tverberg will be the next former Ice Bus star in the pros. Once he is in the big leagues, the Ontario native will have as much of an impact with his team as Tage Thompson currently does with the Buffalo Sabres.