Wednesday afternoon, The Athletic’s Joshua Kloke reported that Maple Leafs top defensive prospect Topi Niemelä would be reporting to the Toronto Marlies later in the week.
Niemela is the Toronto Maple Leafs top defensive prospect, and depending on how one views Nick Robertson, Matthew Knies, and Joseph Woll, could be seen as their overall top prospect.
For a team without a blue-chipper from the top of the NHL Entry Draft, the Leafs top prospect chart is extremely subjective.
During the 2020 NHL Entry Draft which was held in October that year due to COVID, GM Kyle Dubas completed one of his many moves where he trades one draft pick to acquire two lower draft picks. During that draft year he traded pick #44 to the Ottawa Senators for picks #59 and #64. After selecting center Roni Hirvonen with the first pick, he selected Niemela with the second pick.
Toronto Maple Leafs Bring a Top Prospect to the Marlies
The 18-year old Niemela was coming off his first full season playing in the top Finnish pro league with Karpat where he collected one goal and seven points as a 5’11” defenseman.
Niemela received a lot of attention during his 2020-21 season as he was named the best defenseman at the 2021 World Juniors tournament when he led all blue liners goals, assists and points.
The Oulu, Finland native continued to climb up the Toronto Maple Leafs rookie charts after finishing eighth in SM-Liiga scoring among defenseman when he collected 32 points in 48 games during the 2021-22 season.
Had Niemela not gone and won a silver medal at the World Junior’s with Finland he would have likely finished top two in scoring.
Niemela and the Leafs came to terms on an Entry Level Contract this past May, but he was loaned back to Karpat for the 2022-23 season.
This past season Niemela had a drop off in his production as he collected just 18 points in 58 games, however he remains one of the top prospectsin the organization.
The Marlies have a home and home series starting on Saturday and finishing on Sunday against the Belleville Senators so there could be a chance that Niemela gets his first opportunity with the Maple Leafs farm team.
It will be interesting to see how the Marlies deploy their defensemen because they now have about 11 on their roster.
It is likely the club will give the 21-year old a chance to watch the team on Saturday and shuffle him into the line-up on Sunday.