Leafs Sign Engvall, Lindgren, Lindholm, and Ozhiganov to ELCs

Earlier today, the Leafs dropped this tiny little bit of news on us.

So, let’s unpack this a little bit.

Pierre Engvall was a 7th round pick way back in the Dave Nonis era of 2014. Since then, he put up 64 points in 100 games with Mora IK in Hockeyettan (the third tier of ice hockey in Sweden) from 2015-17, and 20 points in 31 games with HV71 Jonkoping in the SHL in 2017-18, before signing an amateur tryout contract with the Marlies, where he had 8 points in 9 games, and has 7 points in 9 playoff games so far.

Jesper Lindgren was a 4th round pick in 2015, and after putting up 24 points in 50 games with MODO Hockey Ornskoldsvik in Hockeyettan in 2016-17, and 8 points in 43 games with HPK Hameenlinna in SM-Liiga this season before joining the Marlies, where he had 1 point in 4 regular season games.

Par Lindholm is an undrafted 26 year old center, coming off a career year in the SHL, where he put up 47 points in 49 games with Skelleftea AIK this season. Igor Ozhiganov is an undrafted 25 year old defenseman, who put up 9 points in 42 games with CSKA Moscow in the KHL this season. Both players had been rumoured to sign with the Leafs for a while, with Ozhiganov dating back to August 2017.

Engvall and Lindgren are likely players who are going to come in and take the place of the graduating Marlies, although they will definitely get their shot at making the Leafs as well, while I’d imagine that Lindholm and Ozhiganov will be competing for a spot on the Leafs out of training camp.