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)
The Leafs had what many draft evaluators thought was a very successful class at the 2026 NHL Draft in Buffalo, with nine selections after picking Gavin McKenna first overall. Chayka obtained a pair of third-round picks in the deal with St. Louis for defenseman Brandon Carlo. With the first of the two selections, Toronto chose Saskatoon Blades winger Zac Olsen.
The 18-year-old played his youth hockey in the Calgary area and debuted in the WHL at 16. In his first full season with the Blades, Olsen scored 23 points (11 goals, 12 assists) in 60 games. Last season, he improved to 34 points (18 goals, 16 assists) in 57 games, and had a pair of goals in five games for Team Canada at the Under-18s. As with many of the Leafs selections, the winger’s main attribute is his skating ability.
“Stride for stride, few players can match Olsen. He weaponizes his speed with intense forechecking pressure, straight-line attacks, and heavy collisions. He plays an intense defensive game, too, and his posture allows him to simply run over opponents trying to get fancy with the puck. When play comes back the other way, he is a shoot-first threat, launching quick-release shots from distance and ripping passes toward the net.”
The Leafs reportedly indicated to the Blades that he would be returning to the WHL club for another season, but changes in Toronto’s player development staff resulted in a change in destination for the 18-year-old, who will be shifting to the NCAA to play for Colorado College this fall.
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