<p>Alex Steeves has been &#8216;on the cusp&#8217; of an NHL job for a long time. The Toronto Maple Leafs signed him to an entry-level contract in March 2021 and he has been in the Leafs&#8217; system for four seasons now, putting in enough work in the AHL (American Hockey League) to become the team&#8217;s all-time leading scorer. And yet, for the past few years, it feels like he&#8217;s always been the third or fourth option on the list of call-ups in favour of players like Nick Robertson and Fraser Minten.</p>
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<p>Steeves, who just turned 25 in December, is having a career year in the AHL with 29 goals and 46 points in 40 games to date. This is a good thing for the Leafs, who can choose to use him as trade bait as they look to beef up their roster ahead of the March 7 trade deadline or leave him as a black ace option for the playoffs. Or, there&#8217;s the previously unexpected but not-totally-dead-in-the-water option of Steeves defying all odds, forcing his way into the Leafs lineup, and not only dodging any deadline deals but perhaps solving one of their deadline deals in-house.</p>
<p>Steeves has two points in six NHL games this season, with both points <a href="https://theleafsnation.com/news/maple-leafs-alex-steeves-scores-1st-career-nhl-goal-carolina-hurricanes">including his first NHL goal</a>, coming in Saturday night&#8217;s <a href="https://theleafsnation.com/news/knee-jerk-reaction-depth-scoring-leafs-win-hurricanes">win over the Carolina Hurricanes</a>, and while those numbers might not jump off the page at you, they came in the form of an extremely small sample size and in limited ice time. Steeves hasn&#8217;t played higher than the fourth-line minutes with the Leafs, outside of a couple of shifts here and there with John Tavares, but in his second stint with the Leafs this season, he&#8217;s made the most of his limited ice time. He frequently generated chances, finishing with two shots on goal and a plus-minus of +2, and utilized his speed on the forecheck.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">🚨 ALEX STEEVES FIRST NHL GOAL 🚨 <a href="https://t.co/wedCO1Wvnu">pic.twitter.com/wedCO1Wvnu</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) <a href="https://twitter.com/MapleLeafs/status/1893456638666736080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
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<p>Let&#8217;s not let Steeves&#8217; impressive two-game run with the Leafs here take away from their glaring need for a third-line centre. He&#8217;s shown some serious potential, but ultimately, the Leafs will have a forward depth issue for the rest of the season if they&#8217;re running either Max Domi or Pontus Holmberg on the third line. What he does have the potential to do is allow them to focus the remainder of their assets on a defenceman, ideally somebody sturdy to play alongside Morgan Rielly to push Oliver Ekman-Larsson to the third pair. This team will need, at minimum, two acquisitions to address the most glaring holes in their lineup, but if the intention is to move money around and make a legitimate upgrade, Steeves comes at a cheap enough price that he could probably provide some secondary scoring with proper linemates.</p>
<p>The obvious risk that comes with this direction is that Steeves hasn&#8217;t played a significant amount of NHL games at once. His six games played at this point of the season are the most he&#8217;s played in an NHL season in his career, so giving him a roster spot under the assumption that he&#8217;ll produce the way you want a bottom-six forward on a contending team to do has the potential to blow up in their faces. But, at this point, is Steeves going to bring less than what players like Domi, Robertson, and Holmberg have provided this season? Perhaps the criticism of those three is a little bit badly timed, considering Holmberg&#8217;s three goals in his past two games and the fact that Domi and Robertson each notched two points in <a href="https://theleafsnation.com/news/5-takeaways-leafs-blackhawks-mccabe-tanev-flawless-robertson-depth-scoring-shine">Sunday&#8217;s win</a> over the Chicago Blackhawks, but on a grander scale in 2024-25, those guys haven&#8217;t brought enough to the table offensively to ensure them a job in the Game 1 lineup.</p>
<p>If nothing else, I think it&#8217;s safe to say at this point that if Steeves survives the trade deadline, he&#8217;s done more than enough to warrant strong consideration for a roster spot next season. He&#8217;s proven four years in a row now that he has what it takes to produce consistently in the pros, and even though he hasn&#8217;t gotten the ice time to reflect it, <a href="https://theleafsnation.com/news/maple-leafs-rookie-alex-steeves-confident-goal-scorer-nhl">he&#8217;s confident in his abilities</a> to be a goal-scorer at the NHL level. Not just an everyday player, a goal-scorer.</p>
<p>“I mean, I think anytime anyone gets called up, you just want to make an impact,” Steeves said following Saturday night&#8217;s game. “Goals are nice, and it’s my first. I am a goal scorer, and I know that. And I know I can be a goal scorer at this level, so, you know, just proved that with a nice one tonight.”</p>
<p>The Leafs may not be the ones to give Steeves a proper cup of coffee in the league instead of just an espresso shot, but as a rookie, the two things you can control outside of your skill level are the no-quit mentality as well as belief in yourself. He has both, and with five games remaining before the trade deadline, expect to see his play ramp up as he makes a final case for the Leafs to include him in their future plans.</p>
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Alex Steeves has been 'on the cusp' of an NHL job for a long time. The Toronto Maple Leafs signed him to an entry-level contract in March 2021 and he has been in the Leafs' system for four seasons now, putting in enough work in the AHL (American Hockey League) to become the team's all-time leading scorer. And yet, for the past few years, it feels like he's always been the third or fourth option on the list of call-ups in favour of players like Nick Robertson and Fraser Minten.
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Steeves, who just turned 25 in December, is having a career year in the AHL with 29 goals and 46 points in 40 games to date. This is a good thing for the Leafs, who can choose to use him as trade bait as they look to beef up their roster ahead of the March 7 trade deadline or leave him as a black ace option for the playoffs. Or, there's the previously unexpected but not-totally-dead-in-the-water option of Steeves defying all odds, forcing his way into the Leafs lineup, and not only dodging any deadline deals but perhaps solving one of their deadline deals in-house.

Steeves has two points in six NHL games this season, with both points <a href="https://theleafsnation.com/news/maple-leafs-alex-steeves-scores-1st-career-nhl-goal-carolina-hurricanes">including his first NHL goal</a>, coming in Saturday night's <a href="https://theleafsnation.com/news/knee-jerk-reaction-depth-scoring-leafs-win-hurricanes">win over the Carolina Hurricanes</a>, and while those numbers might not jump off the page at you, they came in the form of an extremely small sample size and in limited ice time. Steeves hasn't played higher than the fourth-line minutes with the Leafs, outside of a couple of shifts here and there with John Tavares, but in his second stint with the Leafs this season, he's made the most of his limited ice time. He frequently generated chances, finishing with two shots on goal and a plus-minus of +2, and utilized his speed on the forecheck.

https://twitter.com/MapleLeafs/status/1893456638666736080

Let's not let Steeves' impressive two-game run with the Leafs here take away from their glaring need for a third-line centre. He's shown some serious potential, but ultimately, the Leafs will have a forward depth issue for the rest of the season if they're running either Max Domi or Pontus Holmberg on the third line. What he does have the potential to do is allow them to focus the remainder of their assets on a defenceman, ideally somebody sturdy to play alongside Morgan Rielly to push Oliver Ekman-Larsson to the third pair. This team will need, at minimum, two acquisitions to address the most glaring holes in their lineup, but if the intention is to move money around and make a legitimate upgrade, Steeves comes at a cheap enough price that he could probably provide some secondary scoring with proper linemates.

The obvious risk that comes with this direction is that Steeves hasn't played a significant amount of NHL games at once. His six games played at this point of the season are the most he's played in an NHL season in his career, so giving him a roster spot under the assumption that he'll produce the way you want a bottom-six forward on a contending team to do has the potential to blow up in their faces. But, at this point, is Steeves going to bring less than what players like Domi, Robertson, and Holmberg have provided this season? Perhaps the criticism of those three is a little bit badly timed, considering Holmberg's three goals in his past two games and the fact that Domi and Robertson each notched two points in <a href="https://theleafsnation.com/news/5-takeaways-leafs-blackhawks-mccabe-tanev-flawless-robertson-depth-scoring-shine">Sunday's win</a> over the Chicago Blackhawks, but on a grander scale in 2024-25, those guys haven't brought enough to the table offensively to ensure them a job in the Game 1 lineup.

If nothing else, I think it's safe to say at this point that if Steeves survives the trade deadline, he's done more than enough to warrant strong consideration for a roster spot next season. He's proven four years in a row now that he has what it takes to produce consistently in the pros, and even though he hasn't gotten the ice time to reflect it, <a href="https://theleafsnation.com/news/maple-leafs-rookie-alex-steeves-confident-goal-scorer-nhl">he's confident in his abilities</a> to be a goal-scorer at the NHL level. Not just an everyday player, a goal-scorer.

“I mean, I think anytime anyone gets called up, you just want to make an impact,” Steeves said following Saturday night's game. “Goals are nice, and it’s my first. I am a goal scorer, and I know that. And I know I can be a goal scorer at this level, so, you know, just proved that with a nice one tonight.”

The Leafs may not be the ones to give Steeves a proper cup of coffee in the league instead of just an espresso shot, but as a rookie, the two things you can control outside of your skill level are the no-quit mentality as well as belief in yourself. He has both, and with five games remaining before the trade deadline, expect to see his play ramp up as he makes a final case for the Leafs to include him in their future plans.

<strong>Sponsored by bet365</strong>
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