After the Leafs elected not to retain the player's rights, Lisowsky hoped to sign an AHL contract but will instead remain in Junior for now.

Brandon Lisowsky was disappointed when the Toronto Maple Leafs elected not to tender the 5-foot-9 forward an NHL contract.

The odds had always been stacked after the smaller player who was selected by the Maple Leafs in the seventh round (218th overall) in the NHL Draft.

But despite keeping his hopes high and accepting an invitation to Leafs development camp last summer with the hope he'd land an AHL contract, the 20-year-old appears set to return to the Saskatchewan Blades, his junior club as an overager.

"Obviously Toronto was still interested without the contract stuff,' But they’re obviously still interested in seeing how this year goes," Lisowsky told reporters this past weekend at Blades' training camp. "Hopefully after this year, it goes well with them again."

After the Leafs elected not to sign Lisowsky, the Penticton, B.C. product re-entered the NHL Draft but was not selected. He accepted an invite to development camp and the Maple Leafs spoke highly of Lisowsky's attitude coming into the summer week-long session.

"I mean, they had a lot of guys that were free agents or whatever. They had a lot of things, you know, a new GM (Brad Treliving) and stuff," Lisowsky said. "But yeah, I didn't really take it too much as a personal thing. It's a business now. It's not like Junior anymore. It's a pro level, so I didn't take it personally. 

Lisowsky revealed that he will return east in a couple of weeks to participate in the Maple Leafs rookie challenge. Instead of the usual rookie tournament, the Maple Leafs are scheduled to play in a pair of games against the Montreal Canadiens' rookies on Sept. 14 and 15. Lisowsky had 42 goals and 38 assists in 68 games with the Blades last season.

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