The Toronto Maple Leafs have recently graduated an incredible amount of prospects to the NHL.
William Nylander, Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews, Travis Dermott, Freddie Gauthier, and Trevor Moore are just a few of the top prospects from recent years who have made the leap from prospect to major league player.
Of course, having rebuilt their team and used the subsequent high draft picks to pick elite talent at the top of the draft does have one downside: they became too good to keep selecting blue-chippers.
As the Leafs recent bumper crop of prospects make the transition from prospects to NHL veterans, and with the team finishing in the top ten in each of the last couple years, not to mention using prospects in trades (such as Sean Durzi, who was #6 on our list from January, Carl Grundstrom and Calle Rosen), the quality of this list has diminished significantly from three years ago.
Ultimately, this is a good thing – if you’re prospects are great, your team probably isn’t. That said, it is still impressive that despite the trading of draft picks and prospects, the Toronto Maple Leafs prospect list is as good as it is.
As you probably know, the Leafs first rounder this year went to the Kings (along with Durzi) for Jake Muzzin, and their first rounder next year went to the Hurricanes to get them to take on the Patrick Marleau contract.
While the Leafs Top Ten Prospects List isn’t what it was, it’s still not too shabby, so let’s get on with it.