Toronto Maple Leafs Have Found a 4th Round Gem

Drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 4th round (124th overall) in the 2019 NHL Draft, forward Nicholas Abruzzese has been dominating the NCAA this season and has earned himself a spot on Team USA for the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

In the first week of January, the Toronto Maple Leafs prospect  tallied three points in three consecutive games totaling nine points in three games earning him ECAC Player of the Week.

Abruzzese is captain of the Harvard Crimson this season and leads the team with 21 points in 13 games.  Harvard has only played 13 games this season where some teams have played 25, but Nicholas Abruzzese is leading the entire NCAA in points per game so far this season.

Nicholas Abruzzese’s performance this year is even more remarkable when you consider that he didn’t play a single game during the 2020-21 season as Harvard University elected to with draw due of the Covid-19 while the NCAA continued without them.

However, during his freshman season in 2019-20, Nicholas Abruzzese lead the ECAC with 44 points in 31 games and had the third most points in the entire NCAA.  He was named NCAA Ivy-League Rookie of the Year and was named to the NCAA All-Ivy League First Team.

During his draft year in 2018-19, Nicholas Abruzzese led the USHL with 80 points in 62 games while with the Chicago Steel.

Nicholas Abruzzese will now have the opportunity to join Team USA at the 2022 Beijing Olympics with fellow Toronto Maple Leafs prospect and NCAA forward, Matthew Knies.  I’m excited to see what these two players will display on the international stage and hope they’ll continue to raise their stock as NHL prospects.

Kyle Dubas era Toronto Maple Leafs late rounds draft picks

Finding Nicholas Abruzzese in the fourth round was a great grab for the Toronto Maple Leafs.  The prospects drafted during the Kyle Dubas era are just starting to blossom, so it’s too soon to know for sure, but it already seems like Dubas and his team have performed superior drafting to the passed few Toronto GM’s.

Players drafted in the later rounds of the 2017 draft (before Dubas was GM) haven’t amounted to much.  4th round pick, Ian Scott, could be something if he could stay health, but the next best player is 5th round pick, Ryan McGregor, who is a bottom six player for the Tucson Roadrunners, AHL affiliate of the Arizona Coyotes.

I guess Dave Nonis did draft Pierre Engvall (7th round, 2014) and Connor Brown (6th round, 2013), but lets not talk about Dave Nonis.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have some promising young late round picks now playing on the Toronto Marlies in Semyon Der-Arguchinstev (3rd round, 2018), Mac Hollowell (4th round, 2018), Filip Kral (5th round, 2018) and Mikhail Abramov (4th round, 2019).

They have some great late rounders playing over seas in Pontus Holmberg (6th round, 2018), Mikko Kokkonen (3rd round, 2019), Topi Niemela (3rd round, 2020), Artur Akhtyamov (4th round, 2020), Dmitri Ovchinnikov (5th round, 2020) and Vyacheslav Peksa (5th round, 2021).

They also have great late round junior aged North American players in William Villeneuve (4th round, 2020), Joe Miller (6th round, 2020), Ryan Tverberg (7th round, 2020) and Ty Voit (4th round, 2021).

That’s not even including the 1st and 2nd round pick during the Dubas era: Rasmus Sandin, Sean Durzi (now in LA), Nick Robertson, Rodion Amirov, Roni Hirvonen and Matthew Knies.  I’m excited to see how all these prospects develop as there should be a few excellent NHL’s in this bunch.