Trevor Moore has been signed to a one-way, two-year contract extension worth $775,000 AAV, the club announced on Sunday.
After signing as an undrafted player out of college, Moore’s production actually dropped in his second AHL season — from 33 points in 57 games as a rookie to 33 points in 68 games as a sophomore — but he took off down the stretch (11 goals and 19 assists during his final 34 regular season games) and into the playoffs when given expanded opportunity, tallying 17 points in 20 games during the Marlies’ 2018 Calder Cup championship run. The 23-year-old has followed that up by putting up big AHL numbers so far in 2018-19 — he’s racked up 19 goals through 30 games, third in the AHL in goals per game behind Brandon Pirri and Sam Carrick.
That kind of production earned him a recent six-game NHL callup during Zach Hyman and Tyler Ennis’ injury absences. While playing limited minutes (8:16/game) on the fourth line next to Frederik Gauthier and Par Lindholm, Moore found a way to make an impact with an assist in his first NHL game vs. Detroit, a first NHL goal (scored in style) against Vancouver, and another assist vs. Columbus. In a limited 44-minute sample, the Leafs carried over 55% of the shot attempts with Moore on the ice at 5v5.
What’s important to keep in mind about Moore is that he hasn’t put together an offensively-dominant full AHL season yet; this is the first season in which he’s approaching a point-per-game. Mike Babcock recently alluded to this when he called Moore an NHL player but spoke about the benefits of the 23-year-old dominating and scoring lots at the AHL level versus playing spot minutes for the Leafs. The Leafs’ development approach is clear on this: Dominate the AHL, arrive over-ready for the NHL with the confidence of having put up significant numbers in the AHL, and the player will have a better chance of becoming a scorer in the NHL versus a limited role player.
“He is going to be an NHLer for sure. It’s just how soon do you want him to play eight minutes? You know what I mean? That’s the beauty of not getting kids here too soon. You want them to score. The more he scores, the more likely he is going to score at the NHL level. I mean, he’s an NHL player, but how many years do you want to do that? That is the big thing for us. Obviously, when we get healthy, he can go down and he can score a lot and become a scorer rather than a checker.”
– Mike Babcock on Trevor Moore
Beyond the offensive numbers, Moore’s 200-foot game is well-regarded by Marlies head coach Sheldon Keefe and he plays with the pace and tenacity Babcock seemed to appreciate during his time with the Leafs. With his defensive smarts and foot speed, Moore could take on some responsibility as a penalty killer over time at the NHL level as well. The cap value of having a $775,000 player who can contribute offensively as well as on special teams from a third or fourth line capacity should be obvious at a time when the Leafs will be feeling the cap squeeze at the top end of the roster.
Getting Moore locked into an NHL contract until 2021 signals a success on multiple fronts — an incredible amount of hard work from an undrafted player, a good find by the Leafs amateur scouts, and another job well done by the Leafs development system in helping turn a 2016 dev camp invitee into a well-rounded future NHLer. That pipeline of cheap young talent will need to continue to be a well-oiled machine for the Leafs to sustain their Cup window over time.
