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 Kyle Dubas and current GM Brad Treliving had different ideas of what kind of prospects they wanted to populate the organization with. There has been a slow weeding out process of the smaller Dubas prospects in favor of predominantly larger forwards and defenseman that fit the traits that Treliving is looking for
As we’ve done on a yearly basis, we are 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 40 NHL games and are 25 years old or younger:
Prospect List
#40 – Matthew Hlacar – F (Kitchener – OHL)
#39 – Rylan Fellinger – D (Flint – OHL)
#38 – Blake Smith – D (Flint – OHL, Toronto – AHL)
#37 – Braeden Kressler – C (Cincinnati – ECHL, Toronto – AHL)
#36 – Harry Nansi – C (Owen Sound – OHL)
#35 – Landon Sim – RW (London – OHL)
#34 – John Prokop – D (Union College – NCAA, Toronto – AHL)
#33 – Seymon Kizimov – RW (Yekaterinburg Automobilist – KHL, Uchaly Gornyak – VHL)
#32 – Matthew Barbolini – F (Toronto – AHL)
#31 – John Fusco – D (Dartmouth – NCAA)
#30 – Semyon Der-Argushintsev – C (Chelyabinsk Traktor – KHL)
#29 – Will Belle – RW (US Nat’l Development Program)
#28 – Nathan Mayes – D (Spokane – WHL)
#27 – Borya Valis – RW (Prince George – WHL, Toronto – AHL)
#26 – Hudson Malinoski – C (Providence – NCAA)
#25 – Ryan Kirwan – F (Arizona State – NCAA, Toronto – AHL)
#24 – Joe Miller – C (Harvard – NCAA)
#23 – Matt Lahey – D (Fargo – USHL)
#22 – Chas Sharpe – D (Cincinnati – ECHL, Toronto – AHL)
#21 – Sam McCue – LW (Owen Sound / Flint – OHL)
#20 – Alexander Plesovskikh – LW (Voskresensk – VHL / Kryiya Sovetov & Moscow Spartak – MHL)
#19 – Ryan Tverberg – C (Toronto – AHL)
#18 – Roni Hirvonen – C (Toronto – AHL)
#17 – Timofei Obvintsev – G (Krasnaya Armiya Moskva – MHL)
#16 – Vyacheslav Peksa – G (Cincinnati – ECHL, Toronto – AHL)
#15 – Cade Webber – D (Toronto – AHL)
The Leafs under Treliving have been focusing more on adding players of a larger stature to their prospect pool as free agents on AHL contracts, with late-round draft picks, and at the 2024 trade deadline, they went the trade route by acquiring defenseman Cade Webber from the Carolina Hurricanes for a 2026 sixth-round pick.
Webber was a fourth-round pick of the Canes in 2019 and played his youth hockey in Pittsburgh before moving to Massachusetts in 2018 and playing briefly in the US National Development Program and for Team USA in the 2019 Hlinka Gretzky Cup.
The 6’7”, 209 lb. blueliner played four seasons at Boston University, playing alongside Calder Trophy winner Lane Hutson in his senior season. He was dealt by the Hurricanes likely because they were not going to be able to sign him to an entry-level contract.
Webber is primarily a defensive defenseman with excellent ability as a shot-blocker and above-average agility in open ice. The 24-year-old had only one goal in 125 NCAA games in four seasons at BU, but with his size and positional awareness, the Leafs are hoping that he will develop into a shutdown defenseman and penalty killer. Webber played 60 games in his first professional season with the Toronto Marlies, with just seven points (1 goal, 6 assists), but continued to show the shot blocking and positional defensive traits with the Marlies that could result in an NHL opportunity down the line.
