Toronto Maple Leafs prospects fight each other at summer scrimmage
The summer’s barely started, and Toronto Maple Leafs players are already fighting amongst themselves.
Well, sort of.
On the first day of Maple Leafs development camp, taking place at the Ford Performance Centre, Leafs prospects Rhett Parsons and Matthew Hlacar decided to have a little scrap.
The fight didn’t seem to stem from much, with the pair getting involved in a multi-player puck battle along the boards.
Rhett Parsons & Matthew Hlacar drop the gloves during Leafs development camp @BarDown pic.twitter.com/RRhUME6pSc
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) July 3, 2025
At the very least, it’ll get people talking about the two of them, as few people likely knew much about Parsons or Hlacar before today.
Parsons is a 6-foot-3 undrafted 21-year-old defenceman who spent last season with the Leafs’ ECHL affiliate in Cincinnati, putting up five assists and 116 penalty minutes in 62 games. The 6-foot-3 Hlacar, meanwhile, was a Leafs’ seventh-round pick last weekend, putting up seven goals, one assist, and 62 penalty minutes in 43 games as a forward for the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers.
The camp began on Thursday and continues through to Saturday. In total, 48 players are in attendance, including all six picks from the 2025 NHL Draft, as well as 2024 first-round pick Ben Danford and 2023 first-round pick Easton Cowan.
What’s next for the Leafs?
After the draft, the first few days of free agency, and development camp, the good news is that the Leafs news should calm down for a while.
The biggest moves for the team came earlier in the summer, when they locked up both Matthew Knies and John Tavares on multi-year deals.
Nick Robertson and Max Pacioretty remain as key free agents from last year’s team that remain unsigned, with the team having a little under US$5 million in salary cap space to work with.
But barring any major trades, the team appears to mostly have its opening night roster set for next season, barring a few training camp battles that could see players like Cowan make the jump to the NHL.