The Toronto Maple Leafs have a very strong farm system considering they do not have a top-of-the-draft, blue-chip, superstar prospect.
Over the last several seasons, Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas has restocked the prospect pool through draft, even while using some of his picks in trades (Muzzin, Foligno, Marleau). The prospect pool was not very deep when Dubas took over as GM because while the Leafs were drafting their stars (Rielly, Nylander, Marner, Matthews) they failed to hit on most of their lower picks.
Although Dubas has traded a few prospects away to try and improve the team, the prospect pool is still one of the deepest Toronto has ever had. Not every prospect will turn out the way a team expected them to, so the more prospects you have, the better.
Some prospects develop faster than others, so just because a prospect was drafted four years ago, doesn’t mean a prospect drafted two years ago can’t be ahead of him in development.
For this list, I will not be including prospects such as Adam Brooks (25 year-old) or Rasmus Sandin (30 plus NHL games).