Meet Maple Leafs prospect Tinus Luc Koblar: ‘There's nothing I like to lose at'

New York Times

17 hours ago

Throughout Tinus Luc Koblar's season for Leksands' Under-20 team, there were countless moments when Mattias Ritola, the team's player development coach, shook his head in amazement at his young player's temper.
If the Maple Leafs' second-round draft pick lost a game? You could hear his shouting bounce off arena walls. If his teammates didn't pull off a play as hoped in practice? Koblar would let them hear about it. And in games, Koblar used his towering 6-foot-4 frame to beat down opposition defenders trying to win pucks down low.
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'What I absolutely love about him? That he is mean,' Ritola said, adding an expletive for effect. He explained that sometimes players have to have an extreme edge 'to go all the way.'
That attitude could end up propelling the Leafs' highest pick this year toward the NHL.
Born in Slovenia, raised in Norway and now developing in Sweden, Koblar is the embodiment of Brad Treliving and Mark Leach working together in their first draft. The centre blends the kind of size and mean streak Treliving adores with serious upside through the playmaking skill Leach looks for.
'(Koblar) competes all the time,' said Jesper Ollas, general manager of Leksands' Under-20 team. 'He's the one who gets so mad and so pissed off when we lose games. He's hard to handle sometimes with that, but it also means he hates to lose games and battles. He never gives up, actually.'
From the top down, the Leafs appear committed to changing the DNA of their organization.
'(Koblar) is a big, strong, 6-foot-4 player who has a unique background,' Leach said. 'He has just got a very good knack for the net, knack down low, knack to play on the wall, take the puck off the wall and can compete in hard areas.'
The Leafs' No. 64 pick is evidence of that foundational change, with an eye towards the future.
The genesis of Koblar's edge can be found in Slovenia's Olympic teams in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Both his father, Jernej, and mother, Andreja, competed in three straight Olympics between 1994 and 2002. Jernej was an alpine skier while Andreja competed in biathlon.
They blessed Tinus with innate competitiveness of athletes who have been at the highest level. That Tinus had a brother he could also battle with off the ice didn't hurt his cause either. Leach previously said a draft pick's upbringing was very important to the organization.
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'They played a huge role in my competitiveness,' Koblar said of his parents. 'I can say that I've been born with competitiveness.'
Koblar's parents fell for Norway during the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer. Jernej eventually became a coach for the Norway's national alpine skiing team and the family moved there, where Tinus developed.
In Norway within the esteemed Storhamar program, Koblar separated himself as a playmaking winger. Genetics blessed him with size and strength. Matched with elite talent, Koblar took himself as far as he could in Norway as a teen. At just 15, he was logging time for Storhamar's Under-20 team.
His skill and size caught the eye of Leksands in Sweden. At 16, he moved to their more developed and challenging organization. Koblar became a regular with Leksands' U18 team and even found the ice with players four years older on the U20 side.
Yet travelling east wasn't as easy as it seemed. On the surface, Koblar's 32 points in 22 games in his debut U18 season in Sweden seemed promising. Truthfully, he was stuck in the same mindset he had in Norway.
'He had a lot of moments that I loved. But a lot of times he was taking the puck and doing things by himself,' Ritola said.
Koblar struggled to adapt. In Norway, he was one of the best players in his age group. Koblar regularly took his team on his back — or wanted to, at least — and tried to stickhandle through every inch of the ice on his own. And as to be expected for the fiery kid, his frustration wouldn't simmer. It spilled over.
'He just wanted to win so much,' Ollas said.
Ahead of his draft season, Koblar and the Leksands organization were faced with a choice: would he remain on the same path, but with little to show for his puck skills, vision and unlimited passion? Or would he be forced to evolve?
While many skilled forwards often move from centre to the wing, Leksands thought differently. Koblar stood above his peers. He could outmuscle opposition players. If he wanted to win so badly, and wanted to take his team on his back, why not give him more responsibility to do just that? They shifted Koblar to centre and handed him more responsibility on both sides of the puck in hopes that he could use his size down low and play more within a team structure, as opposed to being isolated in a wing position.
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Now, if he was going to get angry, Koblar might have only himself to blame.
'That was a big step for him. And he liked it, too,' Ollas said.
In fact, more responsibility was just what Koblar needed.
'He learned to play give-and-go hockey. And that's when he started to create so, so much,' Ritola said.
Koblar's vision and strength on the puck down low and around the net shone. As the season progressed, his playmaking stood out. Koblar tallied eight goals and 21 points in 43 regular-season games, but in the playoffs, he potted four goals in seven games. He often plays in the bumper role with the man advantage and logged time on the penalty kill.
On a team full of players one or two years older, Koblar developed a maturity at centre as dedicated as his heated nature. He was no less competitive, but he learned to use his intensity to push himself as much as he pushed his teammates to improve.
'The first year, it wasn't in a good way,' Ritola said of Koblar's temper. 'This year, he figured out how to use that in a good way.'
'(Koblar) set the pace of games when he had the puck,' Ollas said. 'He's always available to get the puck and he wants the puck. He wants to always be involved in the game.'
And as Koblar thrived at centre, he drew the highest of praise.
'The way Henrik Zetterberg would get the puck in his own end and then be the middle guy in every play out in front,' Ritola said when asked who Koblar reminded him of. '(Zetterberg) drove the play, play after play. It's only been one year, but the way Tinus drove the play this year, it's been amazing to watch.'
Others were watching too.
Ritola said there were multiple members of the Leafs development staff around Leksands this season, with 2024 pick Victor Johansson also playing on the team. Leafs Swedish scout Christoffer Hedlund is believed to have been heavily influential in discovering and promoting Koblar within the organization. (It is telling that the Leafs believed in Hedlund, who only joined the Leafs as a younger scout in 2021, but part of Leach's modus operandi is heavily trusting his area scouts to do their jobs.)
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But now it's clear many more in the Leafs organization believe in Koblar's future, beginning with development camp in Toronto next week.
'We had some opportunities (to trade down) with our second-round pick,' Treliving said. 'The gap that we had to go down to, we felt it was probably a little bit too far and the staff was really passionate about the pick.'
Now the Leafs development staff will have to match that passion by helping Koblar improve.
Koblar, perhaps surprisingly, said he wants to become even more physical next season. Ollas said Koblar's skating in tight spaces will need to improve.
'He needs to get quicker with his hands,' Ollas said. 'He's got the size and strength, that's not a problem. But his speed in short distances is something he needs to get better at.'
Koblar will start with Leksands' Under-20 team next season, but both Ritola and Ollas expect him to make his SHL debut at some point next year. Doing so will be a positive step towards possibly playing for the Leafs a few years down the road.
'The (SHL) coaches like his competitive mindset,' Ollas said of Koblar's SHL chances. 'But it will be up to him to show that he deserves it.'
After shipping out centre Fraser Minten – one of the Leafs' top prospects – at last season's trade deadline, Koblar fills a positional need up the middle of the ice.
Yet Koblar looks and plays much different than Minten, also drafted in the second round three years earlier. At that time, the Leafs bet on intelligence and drive. Size wasn't the most prominent of priorities in draft picks.
Things are different now. The top of the organization wants their team to be nastier. Harder to play against. If Koblar eventually cracks the Leafs roster, he'll be expected to do just that.
Luckily for the Leafs, he's shown in Sweden he's up for the challenge.
'There's nothing I like to lose at,' Koblar said.