Leafs Top 50 Prospects – Artur Akhtyamov

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)
#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)
#27 – Sam McCue – LW (Brantford/Ottawa – OHL)
#26 – Samuel Hlavaj – G (Iowa Wild – AHL)
#25 – Topi Niemela – D (Malmo – SHL)
#24 – Brandon Buhr – F (Union – NCAA, Toronto – AHL)
#23 – Borya Valis – RW (Toronto – AHL)
#22 – Vinny Borgesi – D (Northeastern – NCAA, Toronto – AHL)
#21 – Ryan Tverberg – C (Toronto – AHL, Toronto – NHL)
#20 – Zac Olsen – F (Saskatoon – WHL)
#19 – Alexander Plesovskikh – LW (MHK Spartak Moskva – MHL, Moscow Spartak – KHL)
#18 – Roni Hirvonen – C (Karpat – SM-Liiga)
#17 – Timofei Obvintsev – G (Gornyak-UGMK – VHL)
#16 – Ethan MacKenzie – D (Edmonton – WHL)
#15 – Harry Nansi – C (Owen Sound – OHL)
#14 – Nick Moldenhauer – C (Michigan – NCAA)
#13 – Tyler Hopkins – C (Kingston/Guelph – OHL)
#12 – Noah Chadwick – D (Toronto – AHL)
#11 – Alexander Bilecki – D (Kitchener – OHL)
#10 – Luke Haymes – C (Toronto – AHL, Toronto – NHL)
#9 – Jacob Quillan – C (Toronto – AHL, Toronto – NHL)
#8 – Miroslav Holinka – C (Edmonton – WHL, Toronto – AHL)
#7 – William Villeneuve – D (Toronto – AHL, Toronto – NHL)
#6 – Victor Johansson – D (Leksands Jr., Oskarshamn IK – Sweden)
#5 – Tinus-Luc Koblar – C (Leksands IF Jr. – Sweden)

#4 – Artur Akhtyamov – G (Toronto – AHL, Toronto – NHL)

The Maple Leafs have adopted a shotgun approach with their goaltending prospects, with netminders playing either in Europe or the lower professional levels in North America under the age of 25. While Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz were between the pipes with the Leafs, the club had Dennis Hildeby and Vyacheslav Peksa in the pipeline, but both are no longer in the organization, with Hildeby part of the Nick Paul deal and Peksa opting to return to Russia.

2024 draftee Timofei Obvintsev recently signed an AHL deal, and the club selected two netminders (Juuso Ainasto and Patriks Plumins) to the club’s portfolio, but the most promising prospect, who appears ready to ascend to the NHL in the near future is Artur Akhtyamov. Akhtyamov was selected in the fourth round (106th overall) of the 2020 Draft after posting a 1.80 GAA in 46 games for Ak-Bars Kazan’s MHL junior squad.

The 6’1”, 168 lb. netminder split time between the MHL, the second pro-level VHL (with a 1.90 GAA in 14 games), and starting three KHL games in 2020-21. Akhtyamov’s performance earned him notice and a selection to Team Russia for the Karjala Cup and to their squad for the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championships, backing up San Jose goalie Yaroslav Askarov.

The youngster’s path to more playing time in Russia has been blocked by Ak Bars being a contender and the presence of veteran starter Timur Bilyalov. In 2022, Akhtyamov played 38 games, with a 9-17-9 record, 2.69 GAA, and .912 save percentage in the second-level VHL. He was then loaned out to Neftyanik Almetievsk and posted a much better 20-12-6 record, 1.74 GAA, and a sparkling .943 save percentage.

In 2023-24, Akhtyamov finally got a KHL opportunity and posted excellent numbers (6-7-0, 2.51 GAA, .921 save %) in the first half, but Ak Bars chose to lean heavily on Bilyalov in the second half and decided to demote him once again to the VHL, which was a factor in him coming to North America last season. In his first full season in North America, he had respectable numbers as part of the trio of goalies with the Marlies (11-8-4, 2.81 GAA, .901 save %).

Akhtyamov’s regular season stats last season were similar to those as a rookie, but with a much heavier workload (21-12-4, 2.88 GAA, .904 save %), but he became the go-to guy for Marlies head Coach John Gruden in the Calder Cup Playoffs, and the 24-year-old did not disappoint, going 15-7-0, with a 2.22 GAA, and .923 save %) on the road to Toronto’s first AHL title since 2018.

With an aging Sergei Bobrovsky and brittle Stolarz at the NHL level this season, it is likely that the young Russian will get an opportunity to play NHL games this season.