Toronto Maple Leafs Top 10 Prospects (Annual Pre-Camp Update)
By James Tanner
The Toronto Maple Leafs prospect pool got quite a bit better over the past six months.
It’s been almost a year since we last updated the Toronto Maple Leafs top ten prospect list, and in that time we’ve seen a lot of changes.
When we last ranked the Leafs prospects, people were higher on Timothy Liljegren, and Nick Robertson hadn’t yet completed one of the most dominant seasons by an 18-year-old in OHL history. Then there is the Kapanen Trade, which added two players to this list, and made a significant impact.
Owing to the strength of the NHL roster, there haven’t been any major graduations, although Sandin, Liljegren and Robertson have all gotten into NHL games. If the Leafs were a worse team, a lot of the players on this list would already be in the NHL.
In fact, given the Leafs current draft-built roster, it is actually impressive that the prospect pool is as good as it is. While there are not any high-end, sure-things, the Leafs have a group of highly skilled, highly intelligent, high ceiling prospects.
When coming up with this list, I talked prospects with many of my colleges, read through countless scouting reports and internet articles, and watched a bunch of youtube videos. My goal is to rank the players by using a subjective combination that considers their ceiling, their chance of hitting it, and their chance of being an NHL player.
For example, I’d rank Semyon Der-Arguchintsev higher than Adam Brooks, even though Brooks has a much better shot of one day being a regular NHL player. If Brooks makes it, it will be as a fourth liner, but if SDA does in fact make it, it’s probably because he’s a star.
With that in mind, let’s get it on.