The Toronto Marlies have signed Arizona State University forward Ryan Kirwan to a two-year AHL contract that kicks in next season.

Kirwan is expected to join the Marlies on an amateur tryout for the remainder of this season.

During Saturday Headlines on Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported at the end of the segment that the Leafs are interested in adding Kirwan to their ranks, with the news of his signing being made official a few hours later.

“It’s free-agent season and Toronto has signed a couple guys already who made their AHL debuts tonight,” Friedman said. “There’s another guy on Toronto’s radar I’m hearing and we’ll see where it goes, his name is Ryan Kerwin. I heard they’re looking hard at him.”

Kirwan finished up his senior year at Arizona State where he led the team in scoring with 39 points (26 goals and 13 assists) in 37 games played. His 26 goals led the National Collegiate Hockey Conference and were tied for third among all college players behind only Joey Muldowney and Ryan Leonard. Kirwan had spent the previous three seasons with Penn State University where he scored a combined 69 points (34 goals and 35 assists) across 100 games.

Standing at 6’2″ and weighing 195 pounds, he plays a power-forward type game using his frame to create space, power to the net, and wreak havoc in tight. He told  PHNX Sports earlier this season that his shot is one of his best attributes which makes sense given how well he did with goals this season.

Kirwan is the third college free agent that has joined the Leafs organization after signing John Prokop and Luke Haymes over the past few days. With GM Brad Treliving sacrificing a number of draft picks and significant prospects in Fraser Minten and Nikita Grebenkin, dabbling into the college free agent pool has been the Leafs’ strategy for supplementing the departed assets.

Guys like Kirwan are further along in their development so these low-risk types of bets go a long way towards ensuring a contending team like the Leafs remain competitive for a long time. The 23-year-old may not be an option for the NHL right now, but should help give the Marlies and extra bit of offensive depth.