I first posted about Jacob Quillan on my Twitter account in July of last year, suggesting that the highly sought-after NCAA recruit had a bright future with the Toronto Maple Leafs potentially as early as this season.
With Quillan’s call-up corresponding to Max Pacioretty’s retroactive placement on IR, now felt like a good time to revisit that almost prophetic hunch.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that Quillan will play too much, but after getting into game action last night, he may find himself in the lineup more frequently moving forward. Or he might get sent back down, who knows.
Regardless, Quillan’s call-up has been warranted. Playing on a line with Grebenkin and Barbolini in the AHL, Quillan’s found his offence after a slow start to his AHL career. With 11 points in his last 14 games, it’s been an inspired stretch of games for the former NCAA champion.
One of the young guys
Toronto’s cap structure in the last few seasons has necessitated their younger players outperforming their contracts in NHL roles. Matthew Knies and Nick Robertson stand at the forefront of that strategy, but Bobby McMann and Simon Benoit also provided surplus value last season on their bargain deals.
Fraser Minten provided a bit of a bump earlier in the year, and Nikita Grebenkin and Alex Steeves have had their chances to make an impression at the NHL level, but of those players, Jacob Quillan still excites me the most as an option for this season.
Before I get into exactly what Quillan can bring to the Leafs, I’d like to bring some context into this article with how Quillan got to this point.
Quillan’s history
A high school player in his draft year, Quillan’s DY+1 was hindered in the BCHL by (surprise!) COVID-19 before he headed off to Rand Pecknold’s Quinnipiac Bobcats program the next season.
His DY+2 was his first taste of NCAA hockey, where he played a stable bottom-six role on a really good Quinnipiac team with limited offensive production. With just nine points in 36 games, there wasn’t exactly a host of NHL teams vying to draft an over-ager who played a predominantly defensive role.
Then in his second year of NCAA hockey, something magical happened.
Lipkin – Quillan – Graf.
Stock rising
Seemingly out of nowhere, the Dartmouth, Nova Scotia native was suddenly a member of one of the best lines in college hockey. With a 19-goal, 38-point season, Quillan centred the first line of the best college team in the country into the Frozen Four.
The cherry on top? Quillan put away the overtime winner that year against now teammate, Matthew Knies, and his Minnesota Gophers in the National Championship Game.
Jacob Quillian. National Champion.
In many ways, it’s an underdog story for Quillan to have reached that pinnacle moment, and after his first taste of NHL action, that work ethic that can keep him here for a long time.
As Chris Peters of FloHockey said, “He’s a heart and soul player.”
Quillan plays the game like the word quit isn’t in his vocabulary. He’s relentless, hunting loose pucks and using his frame and strength to his advantage in board battles. Having played three seasons in the NCAA and being an older prospect, he can hold his own physically.
He’s a strong skater who drives the net with pace, not scared to attack defenders head-on. Even more importantly, he played in all situations for Quinnipiac throughout his college career including the penalty kill where his attention to detail defensively with his positioning is impeccable.
He’s also a natural centre (56% at the dot with Quinnipiac in his last season), and at 6’0”, 200 lbs he’s the perfect build to play a rough-and-tumble style bottom-six role.
What to expect
This isn’t to say he’s a perfect player. I still remember in the preseason when he had a few rough turnovers trying to exit the zone against Montreal where he thought he had time to make an extra stick handle when he didn’t. There will likely be some growing pains as he adjusts to the speed of the NHL and learns when he needs to keep it simple.
However, the fundamentals are there for not just a great NHL depth piece, but a playoff performer. Some will scoff at the idea of championship DNA, but Jacob Quillan’s work rate on the ice and his clutch goal scoring embodies exactly what Toronto Maple Leafs fans want from a bottom-six forward.
As I said way back in July, when you’re in a playoff game against Boston or Tampa with a one-goal lead in Game 7, Jacob Quillian is the kind of guy you want on the ice defending that lead.
We haven’t seen much of Quillan yet. If we see him much more, it might not even be pretty. He might make mistakes; we could even possibly lose the game off of one of those mistakes. We cannot know how good he can be until he steps foot on that ice.
What I have the confidence to say, is that even if he does make that mistake, it won’t bury him. He will take his lumps and then keep moving forward, he’ll continue to give everything he has because that’s what champions do.
And if we’re being completely honest, Toronto could use some champions right about now.
