The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed forward Brendan Brisson to a one-year contract, the team announced.
The contract is a two-way deal that carries a $850K cap hit at the NHL level and a $300K cap hit in the AHL, according to Puckpedia.
Brisson finished the 2025-26 season playing for the Hartford Wolf Pack, scoring 37 points, 19 of them goals, in 66 AHL games. He also saw a little NHL time, playing three games for the Rangers, registering an assist.
He received no qualifying offer from the Rangers and thus became a free agent this offseason.
The 24-year-old has seen a total of 27 NHL games in his pro career with New York and the Vegas Golden Knights, scoring two goals and seven assists. His AHL numbers rack up to a 0.6 point-per-game pace, scoring 66 goals for 145 points across 244 contests.
Brisson, throughout his play, has separated himself as a naturally gifted scorer with a great all-around offensive mind.
This marks the third contract that Brisson has signed in his career; previously, he spent his first three pro careers on an entry-level contract with the Golden Knights at a $925K cap hit, the Knights traded Brisson in March of 2025 to the Rangers for Reilly Smith, where later Brisson would re-sign with the Rangers on a one-year, $775K contract that he played on this past season.
The LA native was a first-round pick of the Vegas Golden Knights, a 29th overall selection back in 2020. Brisson followed up that draft selection by playing lights out at the University of Michigan, winning a B1G Championship.
In 62 career NCAA games across two seasons, Brisson scored 63 points with a near-perfect split in goals and assists on the stat sheet. In between that, the 6-foot-0 forward won gold at the World Juniors for the USA in 2021 and later played for the American Olympic Team in 2022 at the Beijing games.
The Leafs’ newly revamped bottom-six will make things difficult for Brisson to funnel his way into consistent NHL play, especially considering the quick turnaround the club had in adding players like Colton Sissons, Brandon Duhaime, and Nick Paul, among other names that are readily able to play lower lineup roles. But perhaps while Brisson waits for a call-up, he’ll thrive with the defending Calder Cup Champion Marlies while he waits for the phone to the NHL to ring.