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)
The Maple Leafs entering the 2026 NHL Draft had the first overall pick, but wanted to begin reshaping the organization by restocking their prospect pipeline by adding draft capital. Chayka dealt defenseman Brandon Carlo, who was entering the final year of his contract, to the St. Louis Blues for a pair of third-round picks. After taking Zach Olson at #73, Toronto selected Swedish defenseman Mans Gudmundsson 76th overall.
The 18-year-old righty posted 25 points (1 goal, 24 assists) in 35 games for the Under-20 junior level of Farjestad BK last season, and played one game for the parent SHL club last season, as well as registering four assists in seven games for Sweden at the IIHF World Junior Under-18s. The 6’3″, 185 lb. blueliner, according to Elite Prospects, “thrives when he gets to be aggressive and physical, always looking to pinch up to keep plays alive and make stops early.
While grading as more of an average skater due to some mechanical limitations and lack of higher-end edges, he consistently displayed the ability to surf against puck-rushers and exhibited projectable defensive mobility overall. The more the season progressed, the more he leaned into these qualities, with some of his stoutest performances coming at the U18s.”
Gudmundsson is expected to play once again for the under-20 squad, with the possibility of playing either in the SHL or second-level Allsvenskan next season.
