3 Toronto Maple Leafs Prospects That Will Make Their NHL Debut in 2024-25
Which Maple Leafs prospect will see their time finally arrive in the NHL for the upcoming 2024-25 season?
The Toronto Maple Leafs had many of their prospects demonstrate some productive growth in their game during the past year. For some of them, the development had been coming along quite steadily, whereas for others, the improvement had been insubstantial to say the least.
At the same time, the Toronto Maple Leafs have made a wide variety of moves during the current offseason. Their main goal is to put a solid winning product on the ice when the 2024-25 NHL officially starts.
To accomplish the feat, in addition to the key signings that they have made, the Leafs will need some of their internal top prospects to step right into the starting lineup and provide some solid contributions as well.
As a result, we will take a look at three promising Toronto Maple Leafs prospects that will be due to make their NHL debuts this coming season. In doing so, they will be counted upon to provide some level of impact to help supplement their already established core.
3 Toronto Maple Leafs Prospects That Will Make Their NHL Debut in 2024-25
Whether or not they will start the season with the Leafs will highly depend on how well they can impress during training camp and barring any injuries to their regular players.
Nevertheless, at some point in time during the course of the season, Leafs fans should be prepared to see the next generation of talent finally arrive.
Easton Cowan
Who wouldn’t be excited to see the phenom that could be turning out to be one of the Maple Leafs best draft picks this decade?
Don’t forget, it wasn’t just too long ago when many had their doubts when Toronto selected Easton Cowan with their first-round pick in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. That was because many scouts had him pegged for the later rounds. Well, we certainly understand why he was surprisingly selected so early now.
Following a strong finish to his 2022-23 season with the London Knights, Cowan has followed it up with a huge breakout season this past year.
Not only was he a part of Canada’s World Juniors hockey squad, he also played a massive role in helping the Knights capture the OHL championship, as well as finishing runner-up in the Memorial Cup.
Cowan ranked seventh in league scoring with 34 goals, 62 assists for 96 points during the regular season while leading all scorers in the OHL playoffs with 10 goals, 24 assists for 34 points in just 18 games.
Cowan had already made quite the impression in front of the Leafs brass during last year at training camp. Now, following his advancement in hockey IQ and smart vision on the ice as a result of another year of development, don’t be surprised that the 19-year-old will make the Maple Leafs roster out of camp this time around.
And unlike Fraser Minten from last season, Cowan won’t be just there for a cameo, but will likely become an important piece in their everyday lineup.
Dennis Hildeby
After spending the season with Farjestads BK in the Swedish Hockey League following the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, Dennis Hildeby officially brought his game to North America by joining the Toronto Marlies for the 2023-24 season.
For the former fourth-round pick, that move proved to be invaluable for both Hildeby and the Maple Leafs organization.
Not only was he able to quickly adapt his game to the new hockey environment, he actually performed beyond expectations in just his inaugural season with the Marlies.
In 41 games played, Hildeby compiled a stellar 21-11-7 record with a 2.41 GAA and .913 save percentage to help the team reach the playoffs.
Measuring six feet and seven inches tall, he is definitely one of the Leafs most biggest and most intimidating goalies in recent memory.
Hildeby actually earned a call-up to the Leafs during the 2023-24 season during the time when Joseph Woll was injured and Ilya Samsonov was placed on waivers.
However, he never ended up appearing in a single game before he was ultimately sent back down.
Nevertheless, the 2024-25 NHL season should be the year Hildeby will find his way to some NHL action.
With Woll missing significant time due to injury issues the past couple of seasons, along with newcomer Anthony Stolarz not having seen more than 28 games of action during the regular season for his career, look for Hildeby to suit up for the Leafs some time during the course of the upcoming season.
Topi Niemela
Finally, we have the Toronto Maple Leafs top defensive prospect in the system in Topi Niemela. Niemela was chosen in the third round by the Leafs back in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft.
He has made great strides in his game since then, as he has helped Finland earn a bronze and silver medal in consecutive years at the U-20 World Junior Hockey Championships. Niemela was even named Top Defenseman in the 2021 edition of the tournament, as he led all defenseman in scoring.
Niemela has further developed his game during this past year with the Marlies. Given big minutes to play with, he led all Marlies defenseman with 8 goals, 31 assists for 39 points in 68 games played.
Niemela projects to be a top-four, middle-pairing defenseman for his future in the NHL. But with a potentially high ceiling, he could go all out to prove that he can be even better than that. (All stats from hockeydb.com)
The Leafs defense corps endured their fair share of injuries last season that resulted in some constant roster shuffling throughout the year.
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As a result, with a rapidly growing Niemela who seemed to be getting better and better after every game he plays, he would be the ideal candidate to insert into the Leafs blueline for the upcoming year if they run into some injury troubles for their back end once again.