Welcome to our annual countdown of the Toronto Maple Leafs Top 10 Prospects.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are set to start the new NHL season by opening training camp this week, and will once again be a top contender for the Stanley Cup, even if their blue-line is the worst out of any other contenders.
Whether or not they actually win it this year or not will largely depend on some of the players we are going to see on this list.
The Leafs may have changed their general manager, but Kyle Dubas is the one who drafted most of the players we are about to discuss. Under his leadership, the Leafs focused on finding intelligent players who have high ceilings, the hope being that although they might not get as many NHL players as teams who play it safe with their picks, that the Leafs might find a diamond in the rough.
So far, that has not worked out.
Only time will tell if this strategy proves fruitful, but for now I think most people would agree that the Leafs farm system is mediocre overall, but that it’s a lot better than it could be considering how badly the team drafted while they were selecting their superstars.
Of course, no current analysis of the Leafs Top prospects can be had without discussing Rodion Amirov, the prospect who recently lost his battle with cancer.
Last year we ranked Amirov as the Leafs 4th best prospect, and what happened obviously transcends hockey, but he was a great prospect and the Leafs are much worse off without him. When something like this happens, you don’t want to seem disrespectful by discussing how it impacts something as unimportant as a hockey team, but if we are going to fairly analyze the Leafs prospect pool, it must be acknowledged that it is now much weaker than it was last year.
Speaking of Amirov, we send our condolences to his friends and family and hope that he can live on as an inspiration to hockey fans everywhere.
In addition to being weaker overall, the Leafs did not graduate anyone off of last year’s list to the NHL full time yet, and they have only added one first rounder in the last three years (and it was the 28th overall pick).
Since this could be the one thing holding the Leafs back from winning a Stanley Cup, I think it’s important to discuss it before moving on to the Top Prospect Countdown.