The Toronto Maple Leafs organization has drafted and developed a number of youngsters currently playing in the NHL (Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Morgan Rielly, Matthew Knies), but the club under former GM’s Kyle Dubas and Brad Treliving, and new GM John Chayka have had different ideas of what kind of prospects they wanted to populate the organization with.
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As we’ve done on a yearly basis, we will be ranking the club’s top prospects over the upcoming weeks based on their progress in either the NCAA, CHL, Europe, ECHL, or AHL, and their potential to make the Leafs roster and make a contribution in the future.
Players are eligible for the list if they have not played more than 82 NHL games and are 25 years old or younger:
Leafs Prospect List
- #50 – Blake Smith – D (Toronto – AHL)
- #49 – Henrik Rybinski – F (Hershey – AHL)
- #48 – Sawyer Boulton – F (Reading – ECHL, Lehigh Valley – AHL)
- #47 – Cole McWard – D (Bridgeport – AHL, NY Islanders – NHL)
- #46 – Rylan Fellinger – D (Flint – OHL)
- #45 – Sam Stevens – F (Cincinnati – ECHL, Toronto – AHL)
- #44 – Brody Pepoy – F (Saginaw – OHL)
- #43 – Matt Lahey – D (Michigan State – NCAA)
- #42 – Yaroslav Fedoseyev – D (Chelyabinsk Clemet – VHL, Chelyabinsk Traktor – KHL)
- #41 – Cade Webber – D (Toronto – AHL)
- #40 – Matthew Hlacar – F (Kitchener – OHL)
- #39 – Will Belle – RW (US Nat’l Development Program)
- #38 – Cooper Williams – C (Saskatoon – WHL)
- #37 – Patriks Plumins – G (Zemgale – Latvia)
- #36 – Chas Sharpe – D (Toronto – AHL)
- #35 – Hayes Hundley – D (St. Thomas – NCAA, Toronto – AHL)
- #34 – Hudson Malinoski – C (Providence – NCAA)
#33 – Joe Miller – C (Harvard – NCAA)
The Toronto Maple Leafs had a dozen picks in the 2020 NHL Draft, and all of the half-dozen picks in the sixth and seventh rounds were players either bound for four years in the NCAA or a longer development track in Europe. With their third pick in the sixth round (180th overall), Toronto selected center Joe Miller. A late 2002 birthday, Miller was the youngest draft-eligible player in the 2020 Draft and a prospect of the USHL’s Chicago Steel, who was recruited and scouted by former Toronto Marlies head coach Greg Moore.
A scoring star at Blake High School in Minnesota, Miller scored 59 points (25 goals, 34 assists) in 25 games in his senior season and 18 points (8 goals, 10 assists) in 40 games with the Steel in 2021. In his second full season with Chicago, the 19-year-old averaged over a point per game, with 68 points (23 goals, 45 assists) in 62 games.
Miller shifted to Harvard in 2022 and had nearly identical production in his first two years, scoring 13 goals each season, and leading the Crimson with 27 points as a sophomore, but the young center took a step back as a junior, scoring just five goals in 28 games. Last season, serving as Harvard’s team captain, the 23-year-old had his worst offensive campaign, with 12 points (6 goals, 6 assists) in 34 games.
The Leafs still saw some value in Miller as a long-term prospect, and instead of signing him to an entry-level contract before the August 15th deadline, the club signed him to an AHL deal. He will play either with ECHL Cincinnati or with the AHL Marlies next season.
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