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.
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)
- #32 – Juuso Ainasto – G (Jokerit Jr. – Finland)
- #31 – Semyon Der-Argushintsev – C (Chelyabinsk Traktor – KHL)
- #30 – Mans Gudmundsson – D (Farjestads Jr. – Sweden)
- #29 – Landon Sim – RW (Toronto – AHL)
#28 – Ryan Kirwan – F (Cincinnati – ECHL, Toronto – AHL)
Because of Toronto’s penchant for trading future draft picks under both Dubas and Treliving, the club continued to be a big player in the undrafted free agent market. After years of adding smaller, skilled players under Dubas, the Leafs began to bring in bigger players under Treliving with a physical edge, like winger Ryan Kirwan.
The Leafs are willing to roll the dice on late-blooming players in hopes of finding a diamond in the rough. Kirwan may be the best example of that. A native of DeWitt, NY, the 6’2”, 195 lb. winger scored 20+ goals in two seasons in the USHL before heading to Penn State University. His freshman and junior years were a respectable 26 points (13 goals, 13 assists), sandwiching a sluggish sophomore season.
Entering his senior year, Kirwan used the NCAA transfer portal and shifted to Arizona State University, where he led the Sun Devils with 39 points and finished third in the nation with 26 goals. After his college career ended, the 24-year-old signed a two-year AHL deal with Toronto and played two games for the Marlies at the end of last season. In his first pro season, he led the ECHL Cincinnati Cyclones with 59 points (26 goals, 33 assists) in 60 games, and in eight games with the Marlies, he had a goal and two assists.
Kirwan’s scoring touch seemed to translate from college to the lower levels of the professional game, but after an excellent year in the ECHL, the next test will be if he can be a consistent scorer in the AHL.
