Alex Nylander is returning to Toronto for another season.
The 27-year-old, along with Brandon Baddock and Luke Grainger, signed one-year AHL contracts with the Toronto Marlies on Monday. All three players spent parts or most of last season in the AHL, with Baddock and Nylander finishing the season with Toronto.
Nylander is coming off a 44-point campaign in 64 games with the Marlies last year. The right-shot forward originally joined Toronto on an AHL deal, before upgrading to an NHL contract with the Maple Leafs on November 22 after several injuries to the NHL squad.
The same thing could occur again next season if Toronto deals with numerous injuries at some point during the year.
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Nylander ended up playing five games with the Maple Leafs and didn’t register a point, spending most of his time in the team’s bottom-six. He finished second on the Marlies in points, only behind Alex Steeves, who scored 62 points (36 goals and 26 assists) in 59 games.
Alex’s brother, William, who led the Maple Leafs in goals last season, was recently named Sweden’s top hockey player in 2025. Their father, Michael, who played 15 seasons in the NHL, presented the honor, known as the GuldPucken, to William last week.
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Alex was drafted eighth overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 2016 NHL Draft and has since played 126 games in the NHL, scoring 25 goals and 24 assists in that span. He’s appeared in NHL games with the Sabres, Chicago Blackhawks, Pittsburgh Penguins, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Maple Leafs.
Baddock scored one goal in seven games with the Marlies last season after joining the club via trade by the Rockford IceHogs in mid-March. The 30-year-old scored eight points in 45 AHL games last season. A sixth-round (161st overall) pick by the New Jersey Devils in 2014, Baddock has appeared in 431 career AHL games, scoring 25 goals and 38 assists.
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Grainger played seven games with the San Jose Barracuda, the AHL affiliate of the San Jose Sharks, last season. The 25-year-old spent most of last season with the ECHL’s Wichita Thunder, scoring nine goals and 12 assists. Before turning pro, Grainger spent four seasons at Western Michigan University, where he tallied 103 points (38 goals, 165 assists) in 140 games
The Montreal, Quebec-born forward was also a Hober Baker nominee during the 2023-24 season.
This article originally appeared on The Hockey News: Alex Nylander Returns To Maple Leafs Organization, Signing One-Year AHL Deal With Marlies
(Top photo of Nylander: Charles LeClaire / Imagn Images)