Memorial Cup champion Alexander Bilecki ranks No. 6 in THN's Toronto Maple Leafs prospect ranking.
Sitting at No 6 in TheHockeyNews.com's Toronto Maple Leafs prospect ranking is Alexander Bilecki.
The players in this ranking do not have extensive NHL experience and are all under 23. Therefore, players such as William Villeneuve, Artur Akhtyamov and Easton Cowan, among others, won't feature in this ranking for either or both of those particular reasons.
In terms of where these players fall in the rankings, it is a mix of their ceiling and potential, as well as how they've performed in the past year with their respective clubs.
The Maple Leafs selected Bilecki in the second round of this past 2026 draft with the 60th overall pick.
Bilecki, 18, is coming off his second season in the OHL with the Kitchener Rangers, with the left-handed defenseman's stock trending upwards with how his campaign ended.
His regular season was decent as he registered nine goals and 29 points in 66 games. Bilecki is a blueliner who can really move the puck and can be effective in power-play situations. This past season, he was further down the depth chart on the back end with Cameron Reid and Jared Woolley in the Rangers' lineup.
Luckily for Bilecki, Reid is joining the University of Michigan, and Woolley is projected to join the Ontario Reign in the Los Angeles Kings' system. So if he decides to remain with Kitchener for 2026-27, he'll be the No. 1 defenseman with all the power-play time and the other luxuries that come with that role.
Nonetheless, his numbers jumped when it mattered most. In 18 OHL playoff games, Bilecki posted a pair of goals and 11 points. In the Memorial Cup, the 6-foot-2 defenseman continued to provide for the Rangers with three assists in four outings.
Kitchener went on to win the J. Ross Robertson Cup as OHL champions, and the Memorial Cup later in the year. The Rangers finished the regular season atop their division and Western Conference. So even with just two seasons of junior hockey under his belt, the young blueliner can already call himself a winner.
Bilecki is still in the early stages of his hockey career, and it will certainly take some time before he's ready for the Maple Leafs. In The Hockey News' latest issue, it was predicted that Bilecki would be ready to enter the NHL for the 2030-31 season.
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