Maple Leafs Make Exciting Announcement Regarding Young, Skilled Goalie Austin Elliott

The London Knights secured their first Memorial Cup since 2016 after falling short of the mark last year. They were led by Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Easton Cowan as well as Denver Barkey, Kasper Halttunen, and Sam Dickinson, but one name that is generally left out of the mainline discussion is goaltender Austin Elliott.

The Knights were a formidable juggernaut and had prolific players at all positions. Elliott is also an undrafted, 21-year-old who quietly reshaped his career after being let go by the Saskatoon Blades in 2024-25.

Elliott posted a 32-8-3 record with a .900 SV% and a 2.36 GAA between the entirety of the 2023-24 season and the first 3 games of 2024-25. However, that wasn't enough for him to stick around the WHL and he was then picked up by the Knights, where he led them to a league championship on the back of a combined 48-2-0 record.

Now fresh off of a Memorial Cup win, the free agent goaltender from Calgary, Alberta had brought a lot of attention to his name within the NHL circles and it seems like the Maple Leafs got their name in the ring at just the right time.

According to a post from the Ontario Hockey League that highlighted his ridiculous season, they mentioned that Elliott earned a free-agent invite to the Leafs' summer training camp this off-season.

Looking back at it now, it seems like an impossibility that a goaltender of his skill set went unclaimed, but Medicine Hat head coach Willie Desjardins believes that it was timing more than anything else, considering it was 3 games into the season and organizations were wary about their own situations.

Including the Memorial Cup run, Elliott posted a 54-3 record and never saw his GAA slip below 2.46 in any of his three runs. His SV% hovered above .920 for the most part of the year, and he seemed to be the missing piece to a championship team.

It was a move that paid dividends for the Knights and Elliott as they secured CHL's greatest prize for the first time in 9 years. Now, Elliott will have a chance to impress and earn a contract that he very much deserves.

It's unlikely that he lands a gig with the Maple Leafs, but perhaps he'll earn a look with the Leafs' ECHL affiliates, the Cincinnati Cyclones -- or, in a longer shot, the Toronto Marlies.