Toronto Marlies sign Pierre Engvall to ATO

Just a day after dipping into Sweden’s second-tier Allsvenskan and bringing back one of their own prospects in Jesper Lindgren, the Leafs organization has made another cross-ocean call-up, signing Pierre Engvall to an Amateur Tryout contract.

The 20-year old native of Ljungby, Sweden is a prospect that’s very intriguing to both old and new schoolers. He carries an intimidating frame at 6’4, 192 pounds, but has proven himself to be a very worthwhile offensive forward over his last few years of development.

The Leafs drafted Engvall 188th overall in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft after a 35 point in 39 game season with Frolunda’s U20 SuperElit team; the highest junior rank in Sweden. In his Draft+1 he bumped himself up to scoring 51 points in the same league.

Over the last two seasons, Engvall has been in Allsvenskan with Mora IK, though if he returns next year, they’ll be playing in the SHL (formerly Elitseren), having earned themselves promotion this year. In his rookie campaign, he put up 12 goals and 12 assists in 50 games, but nearly doubled those totals this year with 21 tallies and 19 helpers in the same time frame. In Mora’s qualification playoffs, which earned them their promotion, he had 10 points in 9 games.

Players who have scored in Sweden’s top two divisions at a young age historically have precedent to score in the NHL when they make the jump, which makes the fact that he finished 7th in U24 scoring and 3rd in U21 scoring (behind projected Top 15 pick Elias Petterson and Canucks prospect Jonathan Dahlen) very encouraging.

Engvall, who plays both left and right wings, might just be skilled enough to find some playing time with the Marlies down the stretch, though nothing is guaranteed. If he does, it’s possible that he can deliver some of the scoring punch lost with Kasperi Kapanen’s call up to the Leafs.