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Maple Leafs sign prospect goaltender Timofei Obvintsev to 1-year AHL contract

Photo credit: (Steven Ellis/The Nation Network)

By Alex Hobson

Jul 11, 2026, 07:00 EDTUpdated: Jul 10, 2026, 11:19 EDT

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have reportedly signed prospect goaltender Timofei Obvintsev to a one-year AHL contract, according to Obvintsev’s agent, Dan Milstein.

Obvintsev, 21, was selected in the fifth round of the 2024 NHL Draft out of Russia. He spent his draft year playing with Krasnaya Armiya Moskva, a junior team in the CSKA Moskva organization of the KHL. Over the past few seasons, he hasn’t been able to take the next step in his home country, with his numbers regressing playing for the same team in his draft-plus one season. Last season, he was the fourth-string goaltender for Gornyak-UGMK of the VHL, which is essentially Russia’s version of the AHL. He got into six games with a 1-3-0 record, a save percentage (SV%) of .899, and a goals-against average (GAA) of 2.86.

DailyFaceoff prospect analyst Steven Ellis wrote the following about Obvintsev in 2024 about how the young goaltender could possibly be a hidden gem from the draft class.

“The size and extra development help, but there are projectable traits here. Scouts have raved about Obvintsev’s blocker because he moves it as quickly as anyone. He’s got such quick hands to begin with, but flashier glove grabs aren’t rare to come by. It’s the blocker side where goalies often fall short, but he’s as active as it gets in both blocking and re-directing pucks where he wants them to go. For a long time, we were seeing bigger goaltenders who just relied on their size to stop shots.”

While this isn’t a standard entry-level contract, the Leafs have undergone lots of turnover in their organization from a goaltending standpoint, and this deal will give the organization a chance to see what they have in him. Artur Akhtyamov, who was drafted in the fourth round of the 2020 draft, is now being talked about as the Leafs’ potential goalie of the future, so there’s truly no downside to taking gambles on players like Obvintsev.

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