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)
The Leafs adopted a philosophy under Treliving and former Director of Amateur Scouting Mark Leach: when in doubt, go big. That seemed to be the motivation for the selection of 6’4”, 200 lb. Fellinger late in the 2025 Draft. The right-handed blueliner came out of the Soo Jr. Greyhounds program and had two unspectacular offensive seasons with the Firebirds (3 goals, 8 assists in 122 games) before being drafted in the sixth round (185th overall.
As we’ve seen in the NHL, righty blueliners are a valuable commodity. Fellinger is considered a stay-at-home defenseman who plays with good positioning and wins puck battles. Those are traits that the Leafs have on the NHL roster in Chris Tanev and in the pipeline with 2024 first-round Ben Danford, and appreciate as a necessity on the blueline.
“Fellinger is big and rangy. He has a long reach. He moves the puck. He is willing to really get involved. He plays a two-way game. He is a big body who can move.” Leach said. “He is just a pretty big, strong kid for his age. As time goes on with him, he is just going to have to work on his game.”
In his first two OHL seasons, Fellinger had 11 points (3 goals, 8 assists) in 122 games. Last season, he more than doubled that with 16 points (3 goals, 13 assists) in 65 games. The 19-year-old will be returning to Flint for his fourth year. After that, the Leafs could maintain their exclusive rights if he decides to head to the NCAA before June 2027; otherwise, he becomes a free agent.
