Cooper Williams: The Maple Leafs' Fifth-Round Bet on the NCAA Route

Cooper Williams is the most interesting late pick in Toronto's 2026 draft class

Cooper Williams went 158th overall to the Maple Leafs in June, the kind of fifth-round selection that normally disappears into a development-camp roster and gets remembered by nobody. He is worth more attention than that, for a reason that has nothing to do with his skill level: Williams is committed to the University of North Dakota for 2027-28, and he is part of the first real wave of major-junior players using a rule change that has quietly rewritten how NHL teams think about late-round picks.

Toronto made 10 selections at the 2026 draft. Gavin McKenna at first overall took every headline, deservedly. But if you want to understand how John Chayka's scouting staff is actually operating, the back half of that draft class tells you more than the top of it.

What Toronto drafted

Williams is an 18-year-old centre listed around 6-foot-1 and a very light 163 pounds, coming off two seasons with the Saskatoon Blades of the WHL. He put up 57 points in each of his first two years in Saskatoon, finished second on the team in scoring last season, and added six points in 11 playoff games before the Blades were eliminated in the second round.

The scouting consensus is consistent across sources: he is a two-way centre whose best work happens away from the puck. He forechecks hard, hunts turnovers, and defends his own end with more attention than most 18-year-old scorers bother to give it. The shot is described as deceptive rather than heavy — the kind that forces a defender into a decision half a beat early.

The concern is equally consistent. His skating needs to get more fluid and his top gear needs to improve, and at 163 pounds he has an obvious amount of physical development ahead of him. The realistic projection is a bottom-six two-way forward, with a path to more if the feet catch up to the brain.

The Leafs Nation's panel of six writers slotted him 17th in their 2026 Maple Leafs prospect rankings, which is roughly where a fifth-rounder with real habits and real questions belongs.

The North Dakota decision, and why it matters

Williams committed to North Dakota for the 2027-28 season, meaning he returns to Saskatoon for one more WHL year before heading to Grand Forks. He will not arrive alone: fellow 2026 Leafs pick Ethan MacKenzie, who played for the Edmonton Oil Kings, has also committed to UND.

Two Toronto draft picks landing at the same NCAA program is not a coincidence, and it is not nothing for a development staff. It means one set of eyes, one coaching relationship and one strength program covering two prospects, in an environment that is meaningfully more professional than junior hockey in terms of training, nutrition and off-ice structure — which is exactly what a 163-pound centre needs.

North Dakota is also one of the most demanding defensive programs in college hockey. A player whose calling card is his work without the puck is walking into a system built to reward it.

How the NCAA rule change rewired the fifth round

None of this was possible three years ago. Until the NCAA's Division I Council voted in November 2024 to make Canadian Hockey League players eligible — a change that took effect August 1, 2025 — playing a single WHL, OHL or QMJHL game ended a player's college eligibility. CHL players were classified as professionals under the NCAA's amateurism rules, and the choice between the two paths was permanent and made at 16.

That is gone. A player can now spend his draft years in major junior and then go to school, which has three consequences NHL teams are still adjusting to.

First, the development runway got longer. A team drafting a raw 18-year-old in the fifth round used to face a hard signing decision on a compressed timeline. Now that prospect can play junior, play college, and arrive at 21 or 22 with an extra two years of physical development, without the club burning an entry-level contract slot.

Second, it changed what "late-round upside" means. Skinny, smart, two-way players who needed time — precisely the Cooper Williams profile — used to be poor bets in the fifth round because there was no good place to park them. Now there is.

Third, it interacts with the new CBA's change allowing 19-year-old CHL graduates into the AHL. We covered what that rule means for Toronto's pipeline, and the short version is that organizations now have three viable development lanes for young players instead of one. Chayka's staff drafted like people who noticed.

The archetype Toronto keeps drafting

Here is the part that should interest anyone who has watched this organization for a while. Williams fits a type the Maple Leafs have gone back to under three different general managers: the mid-sized, high-motor, defensively responsible junior centre with a decent shot and questionable feet.

Sometimes that bet works — the habits translate, the skating improves marginally, and you get a fourth-line centre who kills penalties for a decade on cheap contracts. Often it does not, and you get a very good AHL player. The hit rate on the profile is not high, but the cost of the ticket in the fifth round is close to zero, and the failure mode is useful: an AHL centre who can play a real role for the Marlies is worth having.

What is different this time is the runway. Toronto is not asking Williams to be ready at 20. Between one more WHL season and however long North Dakota keeps him, the Leafs control his rights while somebody else pays for his development.

Where he fits in a crowded pipeline

Toronto's prospect group is the deepest it has been in years, and that is a problem for a fifth-rounder. McKenna is an NHL player now. Easton Cowan is fighting for top-six minutes. Ben Danford wants an opening-night job on the blue line. Artur Akhtyamov won Calder Cup playoff MVP. Tyler Hopkins is pushing for Canada's world junior team.

Williams is nowhere near that conversation, and he does not need to be. His competition is not McKenna. It is the other 15 forwards in the system fighting for the same eventual bottom-six job, and his edge in that fight is that he will be arriving later, bigger and better coached than most of them.

You can track the whole group on our players page, and the full class breakdown lives in our 2026 draft class recap.

The realistic timeline

Be honest about the clock. Williams plays 2026-27 in Saskatoon. He arrives at North Dakota in the fall of 2027. Even a fast college track means two or three seasons there, which puts him at 21 or 22 before he signs anything. A Marlies debut in 2029 or 2030 is the reasonable expectation, and an NHL game after that.

Toronto retains his rights on the NCAA timeline, which is longer than the standard CHL signing window — another quiet advantage of the college route for a team that is not in a hurry with a fifth-round pick.

The nearest thing to a milestone this year is whether he takes a real step in Saskatoon. Two straight 57-point seasons is steady. Steady is not what a fifth-round pick needs; he needs a jump, and he needs to show it against better competition in his overage-eligible draft-plus-one year.

What's next

Williams should appear at Toronto's prospect games in Gatineau on September 12-13, which is the only live look Leafs fans will get before he heads back to the WHL. That is the moment to judge the skating for yourself rather than reading somebody else's scouting note about it.

Beyond that, this is a four-year story with almost no news in the middle of it. That is fine. The point of the pick was never a fast return — it was a cheap ticket on a player whose best attributes are the ones that survive a development curve, bought at a moment when the rules finally made that kind of ticket worth buying. Track the rest of the board on our draft page.