The amount that the Toronto Maple Leafs’ prospect pool has changed in the past five years is incredible.
Five years ago, the Toronto Maple Leafs top prospect list consisted of guys like Frederik Gauthier, Jesse Blacker, and Stuart Percy. .
This year, the Leafs top prospect list includes players like Timothy Liljegren, Rasmus Sandin, and Carl Grundstrom. And that list doesn’t include recent graduates such as Travis Dermott, Kasperi Kapanen, Andreas Johnsson, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander.
Point being, the Leafs have done a drastic 180 in terms of prospect quality. One guy that sticks out from the current list is Carl Grundstrom.
Grundstrom’s Career to Date
The Toronto Maple Leafs drafted Grundstrom at 57th overall back in the 2016 NHL Draft, and realistically, Grundstrom could have easily been a late first rounder or early second rounder. But the Leafs opted to go with Russian forward Yegor Korshkov with their first second round pick while Grundstrom slid down to 57th.
It’s obviously way too early to tell, but Grundstrom strikes me as a prospect who’s ceiling is a middle six forward, with a slight edge towards the second line. He plays the game of a power forward and he’s got very good defensive skills and a knack for goal scoring as well. The Umea, Sweden native spent last season playing for Frolunda HC of the SHL and put up 24 points in 35 games, very impressive totals considering his age. And to make matters more impressive, 17 of those 24 points were goals.
After his season with Frolunda finished, Grundstrom made his way over to North America where he joined the Toronto Marlies for their Calder Cup run and made a known impact, putting up 14 points through 20 playoff games.
Realistically, Grundstrom is probably ready for the NHL this season. This is obviously barring a bad training camp, but even that isn’t looking like much of a possibility seeing that he put up three goals in two games at the Rookie Showdown and has reportedly put up a goal in both scrimmages he’s played in. However, I still think he starts the season in the AHL.
Grundstrom’s situation reminds me a lot of something similar that was going on last season around this time involving defenseman Travis Dermott.
Dermott and Grundstrom
Dermott impressed throughout training camp and had lots of experts predicting that he would start the season with the Leafs, but due to the amount of players competing for the job and a guarantee of top pairing minutes in the AHL, they opted to start Dermott with the Marlies. He kept impressing with the Marlies and eventually got his shot in January, and since then he’s been a mainstay on the Leafs d-core.
While you can’t really compare Grundstrom to Dermott in the sense that they play different positions, their situations are similar.
While the Toronto Maple Leafs group of forwards seems set, you never know who may struggle or excel in camp. It’s not impossible that Grundstrom could upset someone like Leivo or Johnsson for ice time.
Time will tell.
info from hockeydb.com. , naturalstattrick.com