No Reason to Think Toronto Maple Leafs Prospects Will Help Next Season

The Toronto Maple Leafs prospects pool is not going to help them compete for a Stanley Cup next season.

It’s always fun to look at your favorite’s teams prospects and potential draft-pick’s and think that they’re going to make a difference, but in reality, these pieces will not help the Toronto Maple Leafs win a Stanley Cup next season.

With Sandin and Liljegren no longer considered prospects, the Leafs will be counting on players like Nick Robertson, Matthew Kniews, Topi Niemela and others, but none of them are ready to make an impact in the NHL, and there isn’t a sure-thing among them.

Sandin and Liljegren were first-round picks, while Robertson was a second-round pick, but had the hype of a first-overall pick after his last year of junior hockey. Scoring 55 goals in 46 OHL games made fans very excited, however since doing that, Robertson has been developing slowly in the AHL.

To be fair, he was in the NHL just a month or so after being drafted as the youngest player in his draft.  That’s always going to fire up the hype machine, especially in Toronto.    While Robertson has frustrated fans with injuries ever since, he was a point-per-game player in the AHL this year and will get every chance to make the team next year.

But he can’t be counted on as an impact player that will help the Leafs win the Cup.

Toronto Maple Leafs Up-and-Coming Prospects Are Good, Not Great

Do I think that Robertson has the ability to score 30 goals in a single-season? Yes, I think the skill is there, but I also don’t know if it’ll ever translate to the NHL level.  Even if it does, it’s unlikely to be in his rookie season, and the Leafs are a win-now team.

There have been countless examples of players who are unbelievably skilled in junior hockey and the semi-professional level that never make it anywhere because of their size and Robertson may fall into that category. He’s continued to get hurt year-after-year because his body can’t seem to handle the NHL, so unless he gets way stronger, we may be looking at a Jeremy Bracco type individual who can score a point-per-game anywhere he plays, except the NHL.

The Leafs have a ton of nice prospects, but no blue-chippers.   Eventually, the odds are that they will hit on a player who becomes a star, but it’s not something you can count on. You can’t sit here in the summer and expect that your team is going to improve based on the development of talented,  but flawed prospects.

It’s possible to find Hall of Fame players who change the narrative of a franchise outside the top-10 and somewhere in the 2nd-7th round’s, but it’s highly unlikely and it can’t be a strategy you rely on.

Liljegren, Sandin and Robertson can be fine players for the Leafs, but at the end of the day, they are not likely to be difference-makers.

They’re fine pieces, but when the games mean the most, Sandin or Liljegren can’t pull a Cale Makar, become the best player in a playoff series and win a Conn Smythe Trophy. Then again, Michael Bunting will never be Jaromir Jagr, but he’s still a useful player.

The Toronto Maple Leafs still have a lot of work to do this offseason and hopefully they can find that difference-maker in free agency or via trade because it’s not happening from within.