Toronto Maple Leafs Top Prospects List Part One
By James Tanner
The Toronto Maple Leafs used to have the best prospect system in the NHL.
For like five minutes, last year, after they drafted Auston Matthews and before Mitch Marner had ever played a game. It was briefly true. But you can’t very well call an NHL teams three best players “prospects,” so the Toronto Maple Leafs have no doubt fallen in the rankings.
But who cares? It’s obviously better to have a good team rather than good prospects. The Toronto Maple Leafs – for the first time in a long time – can now say they have that.
My personal view is that if they aren’t already there, the Toronto Maple Leafs are on the verge of becoming a Stanley Cup Contender. Should some of their current prospects develop as well as the last batch has, they could be contending for years.
Still, the team isn’t yet the best in the league. There are still more pieces to add, and more improvements to make. But if the team is going to keep their big three (Nylander, Marner, Matthews) together long-term, they are going to have to keep on developing young talent.
Recently the system has seen several players graduate to the main team. Beyond Matthews, Marner and Nylander, the Leafs have also seen Connor Brown, Zach Hyman and Nikita Zaitsev move off the prospect list. Also, Brandon Leipsic was selected in the expansion draft.
That is seven of last years ten best prospects, so clearly a new list is needed.
Before we move on to the countdown, I would be remiss if I didn’t remind you about the recent series we are doing on the Toronto Maple Leafs all-time greatest draft picks. We’ve covered Nik Antropov, Al Iafrate and Gary Leeman so far.
With a bit of luck, some players from this list might one day supplant those guys.
On to the Toronto Maple Leafs Top Ten Prospects countdown: