The Toronto Maple Leafs no longer have a great group of prospects.
This is just part of the transition from rebuild to contender, however, and is not a problem. Last year, the Toronto Maple Leafs had the best group of prospects in the NHL.
The list last year was populated with names like Calder Trophy Winner Auston Matthews, World Championship MVP William Nylander. and Hometown Hero Mitch Marner. Not to mention, Zach Hyman, Connor Brown, Nikita Zaitsev and Connor Carrick.
Weirdly, all of those player managed to become NHL regulars last season and now the team’s list of prospects has featured nearly a complete turnover.
Nine Rookies
The Toronto Maple Leafs played up to nine rookies last season, and somehow still managed to make the Playoffs. This season the team will be looking to take the next step towards contention. This was seen this summer as the team acquired a trio of 36-38 year-olds to come and augment the team.
Whether Patrick Marleau, Ron Hainsey or Dominic Moore will actually help the team remains to be seen. What we do know for sure is that the Leafs still have a decent set of prospects who’ll be looking to crack the lineup.
No longer ranked in the top half of the NHL, the Leafs prospect list still contains several players with superstar potential and another half-dozen players with decent odds of becoming better-than-average NHL players.
Outside the top two or three players, this list may not be stacked with high-end talent, but it does feature ten players with a chance to be above average NHL players. The list of players who didn’t quite make the cut – Timashov, Soshnikov, Gauthier is testament to this fact.
If you want to see part one of the Toronto Maple Leafs top 10 prospect list before you read the top-five, click here.