The Toronto Maple Leafs have again tapped into the collegiate free-agent market. Yesterday evening, the Maple Leafs announced they’ve signed center Luke Haymes to a two-year contract while also announcing he’ll finish the 2024-25 campaign on an amateur tryout agreement with their AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies.
Haymes recently wrapped up a three-year career with Dartmouth College of the NCAA’s ECAC Hockey Conference. He finished his collegiate career with 41 goals and 70 points in 83 games and a -17 rating. Haymes had begun drawing NHL interest last season after his breakout sophomore campaign.
In all fairness to Haymes, his career -17 rating can be inferred as a team statistic rather than an individual one. Dartmouth finished with a record of 5-24-1 in Haymes’s rookie year during the 2022-23 NCAA campaign, finishing last in the conference by a healthy margin. The team finished remarkably better in his sophomore season, finishing fourth in the conference with a 13-10-9 record. The better team finish was evidenced in Haymes’s stat line, scoring 18 goals and 18 assists in 31 games with a +2 rating.
Dartmouth continued to improve this season, finishing with an 18-13-2 record. Unfortunately, Haymes lost a few games due to injury, finishing the year with 12 goals and 18 points in 22 games. The Big Green made another ECAC Hockey tournament push but failed to reach beyond the semifinals for another consecutive season.
Haymes can play in meaningful hockey once he plays his first contest with the Marlies. The team is poised for playoff positioning in the AHL’s North Division with a 32-20-3-6 record through 61 contests. They’ll have a competitive battle with the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters for third place in the division over the last handful of games in the regular season.