Marlies Sign Defenseman Frank Djurasevic to Two-Year Contract, Add ATO

Sitting third in the North Division at 32-21-5-5 with the calendar flipping to April, the Toronto Marlies needed blue-line depth on the right side and moved Saturday to secure it in the most efficient way the AHL rulebook allows: an amateur tryout agreement paired with a two-year contract that doesn't officially begin until next fall.

Frank Djurasevic, a 24-year-old defenseman out of the University of Maine, signed that two-year deal with the Marlies organization on March 28, 2026, while simultaneously agreeing to join the club immediately on an ATO for the remainder of the 2025-26 campaign. The structure is deliberate. The ATO activates Djurasevic as a pro player this week, in time for Toronto's stretch run, without triggering the first year of his contract. That clock doesn't start until 2026-27, preserving the full two seasons Toronto invested in and giving both sides a structured audition period before the professional relationship formally begins.

The right-shot piece matters in context. Djurasevic is 6-foot-2, 201 pounds, and brings the kind of physical profile that AHL coaches want when building shutdown pairings for a playoff push. His college metrics support the signing: 14 points on five goals and nine assists in 34 games for Maine this season, plus a career-high 61 blocked shots that signal a willingness to play in front of pucks and occupy the hard areas. He served as an alternate captain for the Black Bears, a leadership designation that carries weight when teams are evaluating whether a college player can transition to a pro locker room mid-season.

The broader body of work across 107 NCAA appearances at Maine and Merrimack adds up to 52 points, 16 goals and 36 assists, which is a respectable production line for a defensive blueliner who wasn't playing sheltered minutes. He is not a project. By the time he reports to Coca-Cola Coliseum, Djurasevic will have logged more than 230 competitive games between the BCHL and NCAA, and he carries championship experience that few ATO signings his age can claim.

That experience traces back to Penticton, British Columbia. Djurasevic played 127 games with the Penticton Vees in the BCHL and was part of back-to-back BCHL championship teams in 2021-22 and 2022-23, winning titles in consecutive seasons before transitioning to the college game at Merrimack and then Maine. Winning cultures tend to produce players comfortable with pressure moments, and the Marlies are in one now.

The ATO-to-contract structure is worth understanding, because it clarifies what actually changes this week versus what is settled for next fall. An ATO allows a college player whose season has ended to join an AHL team and play professional games immediately, without that service time counting against a standard player contract. It is the mechanism that lets a program like Toronto snap up a college free agent the moment his eligibility expires rather than waiting for the offseason. For Djurasevic, it means he could be in uniform for the Marlies within days. For Toronto, it means they added a professional-caliber right-shot defenseman to the active roster at a point in the season when teams typically cannot. The two-year contract already in hand removes any ambiguity about what comes next: Djurasevic reports to training camp in the fall as a signed Marlie, not as a tryout hoping to earn a deal.

His role through the stretch run will be determined by how quickly he adapts to the pace and the defensive structure John Gruden's staff runs. His size makes him a natural candidate for penalty kill work, where physicality and willingness to block shots translate directly. His offensive numbers at Maine suggest he is capable of contributing on a second power play unit if the opportunity arises, though defensive structure will almost certainly come first for a player still earning his AHL footing.

The Marlies have consistently used the NCAA pipeline to add pro-ready talent late in the season, and Djurasevic fits that model cleanly. He arrives at 24 with leadership experience, a winning background, and a physical game built for the pro level. Whether he claims a regular pairing spot for the playoff push or settles into a rotational role, Toronto gave itself another option on the right side at exactly the moment options are most scarce. The two years locked in for 2026-27 suggest the organization already knows what it is betting on.