Who Will Take Over for Rasmus Sandin As the Toronto Maple Leafs Top Prospect?

The Toronto Maple Leafs have recently become one of the best developmental teams throughout the NHL, graduating many of their superstars. Some say the pipeline is now thin, but that certainly isn’t the case.

The Toronto Maple Leafs development model of choosing skill and intelligence over phsyical attributes like size has been working very well so far.

Despite the Leafs true ‘blue chip’ prospects playing in North American professional leagues, the Leafs still have a number of very promising young players plying their way in Junior, College or European leagues.

Editor in Leaf recently published our updated top 10 Leafs Prospects  and Rasums Sandin was ranked #1.  Since he is verging on transitioning from Top Prospect to NHL Regular, I thought it would a good time to run through some candidates to take over for him.

Here are the top five competitors to take over for Rasmus Sandin as the Toronto Maple Leafs new #1 Prospect.

Nick Robertson

Nick Robertson was the highest pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Touted by many as a late first rounder the Leafs seemingly snatched a gem with Robertson at number 54.

At 18 Robertson is one of the youngest of the 2019 draft class and also a premature baby, meaning he was not only one of the youngest but exclusively not a 2020 prospect due to emergency surgery.

In his first season with Peterborough of the OHL Nick put up 55 points (27-28-55) in 54 games. This season he exploded onto the scene and hasn’t been stopped, with an extremely impressive 31 goals in just 28 games.

Robertson brings an arsenal of weapons to his game; he has an array of shot options and also brings a real bite to his game with some nastiness. He also isn’t your typical undersized rat; Robertson has shown a willingness to drop the gloves to protect himself or a teammate.

Robertson is unmatched in the OHL with his current goalscoring rate. He currently sits at 6th in league goalscoring, with only one other player (Connor McMichael of the London Knights) scoring at a goal per game pace.

Nick Robertson presents himself as a real top end prospect for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and at 18, he has already surpassed many scouts reported ceiling for him from last season.

Semyon Der-Arguchintsev

SDA is a unique prospect, he’s the robin to Robertson’s batman. Playing as Robertson’s centre this year has seen him blow his previous numbers out of the water. SDA has 56 points (7-49-56) in 39 games. That surpasses his career high of 51 points in 29 fewer games played.

SDA was signed to an ELC following his draft year, something very rare for a 3rd round pick. However, in his D+1 season, 2018-19, he seemed to show no signs of true progression.

This season he is absolutely showing his ability, yet given his production drop when Robertson was out injured, questions need to be asked. Despite SDA’s lack of goalscoring, his playmaking ability is undeniable.

He also spent time with the Newfoundland Growlers last year on their road to a Kelly Cup. That experience will be instrumental and on a geared up Peterborough, it’s worth keeping your eye on the young centre this postseason as it could point to whether he and Robertson follow what looks to be the Toronto Maple Leafs new blueprint and become Marlies for 2020-21.

Mikko Kokkonen

Mikko Kokkonen had a historically impressive season last year in Finland’s top professional league. On a young team, the Finish blueliner put up an extremely impressive 19 points (3-16-19) in 56 games. To put that into perspective, Ville Heinola, a blue chip first round prospect for Winnipeg put up 14 points in 34 games.

Kokkonen hasn’t picked up this season where he left off. He only has 3 points in his first 24 games on what is an extremely poor Jukurit side. Despite the drop in production Kokkonen continues to be deployed with top 4 minutes as a 19 year old in a professional league.

Kokkonen is another player that could be a Toronto Marlie next season. With the likely permanent promotion of Timothy Liljegren and Rasmus Sandin by next season the Marlies will be looking for their next top pairing young defenceman to groom.

Joseph Duszak, Jesper Lindgren and Mac Holloway all being righties points perfectly to a young, true 2-way left shot to find his way into the Toronto Marlies for 2020-21.

Nicholas Abruzzesse

This is the first shock name on the list for many of you. Nick Abruzzesse certainly wasn’t a name on this list leading into this season but his seamless progression into college hockey makes him an impossible omission.

Abruzzesse was the scoring title holder in the USHL last year as an overage draft pick which was the reason expectations were suppressed. He has shown this season that what he can do at one level, he can do at the next. Abruzzesse has an impressive 21 points (8-13-21) in 17 games with Harvard University.

Abruzzesse looked very impressive at the rookie tournament. When thinking of Abruzzesse, don’t think of a small centre of the likes of SDA, Nick has much more of a Trevor Moore in his game. He is a relentless skater with a real focus on the smaller details within the game.

He does remain a long shot, but this is exactly the type of player the Toronto Maple Leafs development staff seem to love working with and considering his current production he could bring a little bit more to the table than initially believed.

Mikhail Abramov

Mikhail was a 4th rounder for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the most recent NHL Entry Draft. He is another of your prototypical undersized forwards of the likes of Moore, Timashov and Brooks.

Abramov is another name who has managed to out-perform his expectations for this current season. He has amassed 52 points (28-24-52) in 45 games played on a horrible Victoriaville team.

His individual ability to provide production even on a poor team is magnified by the fact that he has 25 points more than the second top scorer on his team and leads his team in goals with 28, the second top goal scorer only notching 15.

Abramov has also shown a development in his game this season. Last year he was considered to be a pass first winger, only putting up 16 goals and 28 assists in 62 games. This season Abramov’s shooting percentage has increased from 9.6% to 15.6% and he was previously taking just over 2 shots a game which has now increased to 4.

Overvaluing production at the junior levels can easily lead to over-evaluation of players, this is especially apparent for players on especially high-scoring teams. Abramov has twice the number of points of any other forward on his team and has shown an ability to produce against the toughest opposition whilst playing alongside average linemates.

Sources (EliteProspects.com, DobberProspects.com)

This proves he has the ability to carry a line and even with an inferior centre, he can produce. Those values are something that the Leafs need in the future with their bottom-6 and shows real character and maturity within Abramov’s game.