- Toronto signs 21-year-old Russian goalie Timofei Obvintsev to a one-year AHL deal
- The 2024 fifth-round pick spent last season buried on the depth chart in the VHL
- Read below for what the move means for the Marlies crease in 2026-27
The Maple Leafs kept another young goalie in the system.
Toronto signed Timofei Obvintsev to a one-year AHL contract, keeping the 21-year-old around for 2026-27 with the Marlies. The Leafs drafted him in the fifth round in 2024 out of Russia.
Obvintsev is a long-term project, and last season spelled out why. He sat fourth on the depth chart for Gornyak-UGMK in the VHL, Russia’s answer to the AHL, and dressed for only six games.
His numbers came out thin. He went 1-3-0 with an .899 save percentage and a 2.86 goals-against average in that small sample.
An AHL contract keeps things flexible for both sides. Toronto still holds his NHL rights as a 2024 pick, so this lets him develop with the Marlies without burning an entry-level slot.
What the club likes is the frame. At 6-foot-4, Obvintsev has the size teams chase in modern goalies, and Toronto is betting a full year of North American reps unlocks more than a handful of VHL nights ever could.
Crease depth is the real reason this matters. Dennis Hildeby is off chasing a full-time NHL job in Tampa Bay, which thinned out the organizational goalie picture behind the big club.
Obvintsev doesn’t erase that overnight. A big Russian prospect on a one-year AHL deal is a lottery ticket, and July is when smart teams buy a few of them.
Hand him smaller ice and a real workload with the Marlies, and Toronto finds out quickly whether the fifth-rounder is worth building around.
