The basic philosophy I used in building my team was I wanted to control the puck and control the matchups. I built the core of my team around seven guys; my top two centres, my top four defence, and my goalie. From my centres and defence I wanted guys who could push the puck up ice, but who could be trusted in their own end as well. Behind them I wanted a guy I simply don't have to worry about to stop the puck. I then added guys to round out my forwards and defence that could provide offence and cause matchup problems for any team.

Here's the roster, and then I'll explain my choices after the jump.

Daniel Sedin - Jonathan Toews - Justin Williams
Andrew Ladd - Patrice Bergeron - Wayne Simmonds
Pascal Dupuis - Adam Henrique - Mikkel Boedker
Cory Emmerton - Craig Smith - Chuck Kobasew

Ryan McDonagh - Victor Hedman
Francois Beauchemin - Dion Phaneuf
Justin Faulk - Tom Gilbert

Ryan Miller
Ben Bishop

Scratches: Chris Butler, Matt Hendricks, Eric Nystrom

Continue reading this post »

In yesterday's FTB, SkinnyFish linked to an article published on The Hocky Writers blog, where the writer provided himself with a little challenge; create the best hockey team possible under the salary cap, using a few house rules (you can find the original article here. It was a pretty interesting challenge, and the author's team was pretty intriguing (although I agreed with Skinny's original take that the defence seemed a little lacking).

Anyways, we're kind of in the lull of the offseason; the amount of playoff hockey to watch is shrinking by the day, but coverage of the NHL Entry Draft hasn't ramped up to the point of becoming unbearable yet. So let's have some fun, and see which PPPer has the best salary cap acumen.

Continue reading this post »

The first instalment of the PPP Top 25 Under 25 series was one that was inevitably going to be a bit of a letdown for a conclusion. Phil Kessel was always going to be #1; it wasn't even a question, and his unanimous selection as #1 was pretty much a foregone conclusion when we started. In fact, if somebody didn't vote Kessel #1, then we'd have something to talk about.

But Kessel's play this season has simply removed all doubt. He's already scored 31 goals this season, his 4th season scoring more than 30 goals in the NHL. I was curious where that placed him among the top snipers in the league. Since the lockout, Kessel's 4 season with 30 or more goals puts him in a tie for 9th, with Gaborik, Malkin, Parise, St. Louis, Vanek and Zetterberg. He's behind Iginla, Kovalchuk, Ovechkin (all with 6), and Crosby, Heatley, Marleau, Nash and Eric Staal (5). If you add the restriction of players who accomplished it under the age of 25, he's tied for 3rd. Only Ovechkin (6) and Crosby (5) had more 30-goal seasons under the age of 25.

Kessel's 158 goals are good for 39th in the league since the lockout, on a Goals Per Game basis, he's 31st. Dropping the restriction to players under the age of 25, he has scored the 9th. most goals in the league (since the lockout) before his 25th birthday.

The next time someone brings up the extravagant price the Leafs paid for Kessel, ask them what they would have ponied up for a 22 year old Rick Nash. Their stats to that point (and age 25) are pretty comparable.

Continue reading this post »

Since the lockout, many defenceman have burst into the league as rookies, made the transition almost seamlessly, earned praise from virtually every corner of the league, and significantly raised expectations going forward.

What often ends up happening is the defender suddenly finds himself mired in a "sophomore slump"; no longer able to simply ride the wave of emotion of being a rookie pro and shake up the bumps and bruises of being a pro athlete night in and night out, no longer able to surpise opponents who have a body of work to scout their tendencies, they struggle to get the same opportunities they did as a rookie. Then insatiable fans wonder "what's wrong with him?" when he doesn't repeat his meteoric rise into the league. Lather, rinse, repeat, without fail, every year.

In recent years, we've seen this scenario play out with Tyler Myers after winning the Calder Trophy. We've seen it with PK Subban after bursting onto the scene in the playoffs for the Montreal Canadiens. We saw it this year with Cam Fowler of the Anaheim Ducks.

Jake Gardiner has made a slow and steady progression in his first season as a pro, and could be well suited to skip that fall from grace. His potential as future cornerstone of this Leafs lands him as our runner-up in the Leafs Top 25 Under 25.

Continue reading this post »

When I finally got a chance to sit down and write about James Reimer (which I apologize for it taking so long), two questions kept coming up.

The first; is #3 too high of a ranking for Reimer?

While his statistics have been an improvement over the level of goaltending the Leafs have received since the lockout, they aren't exactly mind-blowing. His 921 save percentage over 37 games last season was good for around the 20th best rate in the league last season, but if you look at the splits by month it also decreased each month of the season, a feat that up until this month was repeating itself this year (although January's .857 included just one game). Having battled injuries and inconsistency for much of this season, it's possible that one of the Leafs top young prospects in Joe Colborne or Nazem Kadri should be placed ahead of him.

Then there was the second question; is #3 too low of a ranking for Reimer?

Continue reading this post »

Four seasons into Luke Schenn's career, what do we know?

We know that he probably provides more offensive upside than Leaf fans expected when he was drafted 5th overall in 2008. Without the benefit of virtually any time on the powerplay, Schenn has incrementally improved from 14 to 17 to 22 last season. With 15 points through 52 games, he's on pace for 23 points this year (in significantly reduced ice time). And all but one of those points has been earned at even strength.

We know that he's one of the most prolific hitters in the league. Take the statistics regarding hits for what they are, he has registered at least 150 hits in every season of his career, and was 8th in the league last season (and currently stands 6th in hits this season).

We know that he has issues with footspeed. Whether it's just that he's not a particularly strong skater, or that perhaps he's put too much muscle on in the past summers, Schenn isn't a terribly fast skater. It leads to issues with positioning and he can be caught flat-footed.

And we know that for all the potential to be a shut-down defender, he's yet to show it. The Leafs have given up a significant number of shots and scoring chances while Luke's on the ice, and he hasn't been the victim of a significantly difficult workload that could help explain it. All told he certainly is not ready to take on this role.

So what do we really know? We know that at 22 years old, Schenn still has a significant amount of time to develop as a player, and that as a defenceman, his development trajectory is going to take longer. He's a player who certainly has some warts but he remains a very valuable young player and checks in at #4 on our Top 25 Under 25.

Continue reading this post »

It's very hard to classify a team as the "loser" in a trade that eventually wins them the Stanley Cup.

I mean, the goal of all 30 NHL teams each year is to hoist the Cup at the end of the season. Teams that are truly close frequently gamble that their time is at hand, and trade a piece of their future to improve their chances that year. When they gamble and lose, the gamble can prove quite costly. But when you win, the gamble is forgotten, because the goal was achieved.

So it's hard to say that the Boston Bruins lost the deal that saw them acquire Tomas Kaberle from the Maple Leafs last year at the trade deadline, in exchange for a first round pick, a second round pick (included as a result of Boston reaching the Finals), and prospect Joe Colborne. Kaberle did not provide the contribution to Boston's powerplay, that they expected, and left in the summer as a un unrestricted free agent.

The Leafs would trade both of the picks they received from Boston at the Entry Draft; using Boston's first and their own second-round picks to move up and select Tyler Biggs, and traded the second round pick to Colorado in exchange for John-Michael Liles, who would serve as Kaberle's replacement on the Leafs. Liles has made an immediate impact on the Leafs this season, and Biggs is a welcome addition to the Leafs prospect cupboard.

But the addition of the 6'5" Colborne could be the one piece that Bruins fans might wish they could have back. Far be it from me to suggest that Bruins fans would rather have Colborne than the Cup, but that with the benefit of hindsight they would probably try and not part with the big playmaking centre in exchange for Kaberle.

Colborne becomes the best big, skilled centre prospect in the organization since Nikolai Antropov, and was voted #5 in our Top 25 Under 25.

Continue reading this post »

My earliest memories of the Maple Leafs are from the Wendel Clark/Doug Gilmour/Pat Burns era. So that's just shy of 20 years of watching the Leafs, a passion that has grown every day. So the following statement is not said lightly.

In almost 20 years of following the Toronto Maple Leafs, I cannot remember a Maple Leaf drafted prospect that oozed raw skill like Nazem Kadri does.

Now that's not to say the Leafs have not had some immensely talented players in their organization over that time. Mats Sundin immediately springs to mind. Phil Kessel, of course, also fits that description. But both of them were drafted elsewhere and traded for by the Leafs. The best player to have come through the Maple Leafs prospect system, having been drafted and developed by the organization, is probably Wendel Clark. But Clark's game was about a mix of skill and toughness; his skill was evident, but the combination made him a fearsome power forward.

Kadri, as Pierre McGuire coined them, possesses some "nifty mittens". He has the offensive abilities to be a consistent threat on the attack, and the creativity to generate chances out of thin air. As he matures and develops, the Leafs have been refining his game and providing him with opportunities to gather the confidence to utilize his skill, but also educate him on how to succeed against the very best defenders in the world.

Kadri has just begun to scratch the surface of his potential abilities, and lands at #6 in our countdown.

Continue reading this post »

Even though this is our first instalment of the Top 25 Under 25 series, I feel pretty confident in saying that doing rankings during the middle of the season can be a tough task.

Already during this countdown, we've had one member of the team be traded out of the organization, and no fewer than eight of our Top 25 have moved from one level to another. We've also had about 20 additional games worth of information about these guys to process. So while the rankings reflect how we felt back at the start of December. Nearly two months later, things might have changed quite a bit.

So with that in mind, maybe it isn't entirely a surprise to see Cody Franson ranked at #7. Franson had some difficulties settling into his new home in Toronto. With an overcrowded right side, Franson was forced into starting his Leaf career playing on the left side. But after a period of early struggles, and being outplayed by rookie Jake Gardiner, Franson found himself the odd man out, making matters worse by creating a minor media controversy about his (lack) of playing time, and earning no favours from Leaf fans becoming used to the idea that all players have to earn their spot in the lineup.

But Franson has been one of the biggest benefactors of Mike Komisarek and John-Michael Liles injuries, and uneven play from Luke Schenn. Franson has established his position in the line-up, and could force the Leafs into a difficult decision on how to allocate ice time when Liles returns from a concussion.

Continue reading this post »

We've reached a point in the Countdown where background information on the player isn't required at the same level as before. The top 8 should all be pretty familiar to everyone reading these final profiles. The players that are left are all players that have been Maple Leafs at some point this season; they're either still with the club or back with the Marlies trying to push their way back to the big leagues.

So with only players left that have demonstrated that they are NHL calibre players, it's about separating actual ability from potential ability. Who of the players remaining has the highest potential ceiling as a player? Who has the highest chance of reaching their peak potential? Which players are young enough that they have time to cash in on that potential?

With those questions in mind, it may not come as a shock that Frattin occupies the #8 position in our countdown. Coming into this season, Frattin was one of just two players remaining to have never played in the NHL but is the third-oldest of our remaining players. Compared to the remaining forwards on this list Frattin also lacks the potential to be a top-end guy. I don't project Frattin ever being the type of guy that a team can count on as a top-six forward.

He projects more into the type of role he was being used in during his stay with the Maple Leafs; a two-way player who can provide an offensive spark when called upon.

Continue reading this post »

As we close in on the conclusion to our list of the Top 25 Maple Leafs under 26 years old, now seems like a good time to get the input of you, the PPP community.

Tomorrow the series will resume with #8, and will hopefully continue on without any more interruptions. In the meantime I invite you to participate for yourself, by giving us your thoughts on who the Leafs best young players in the system are.

Below you will find the list of all 45 players that were eligible for our rankings. In the comments section, give your rankings for the Top 25. We'll tabulate the results, and when the series is over we'll compare the community rankings to the official rankings and see where you all see things differently. (For the purposes of the exercise, pretend Luca Caputi is still a member of the organization).

Continue reading this post »

At the start of the Top 25 Under 25 series, I dug up a quote from Assistant GM Dave Nonis. The quote, from this past September, was talking about the necessity, as an organization, to always have prospects in the system, constantly challenging for jobs at the NHL level. Nowhere in the organization has this been demonstrated more clearly than on defence.

Dion Phaneuf has evolved into a veteran defender capable of playing at both ends of the ice, and a leader on and off of it. Carl Gunnarsson is maturing into an invaluable commodity and has taken on any role asked of him. Today we learned John-Michael Liles has re-signed with the club for four more years. Mike Komisarek is... under contract. After those four, three young defenceman (whom we've yet to introduce on this list) all fight for a fixed amount of ice time that is never enough to keep all parties happy.

Beyond them, two more blueliners (Keith Aulie & Korbinian Holzer) have been shuttled back and forth between the NHL and the AHL, biding their time and working on their games to become full-time NHLers. This past summer the Leafs also added Stuart Percy who they hope will enter into the conversation a few years down the road.

In the meantime, another young defender is in the middle of a strong first professional season on the Toronto Marlies, making his case to be the next defender in line to get the call to the NHL. Jesse Blacker has grown exponentially as a player over the last two and a half season, and as early as next season Leaf fans could be seeing him pushing for a place on the Leafs blueline, forcing management into a few difficult decisions.

This impressive rise sees Blacker land at #9 on our Top 25.

Continue reading this post »

Almost two years ago, Brian Burke announced two trades that came as an absolute shock to everyone around the league, and took a major step forward in transforming the Toronto Maple Leafs. In one deal with Anaheim, he shipped much maligned goaltender Vesa Toskala and forward Jason Blake out of town in exchange for veteran goaltender Jean-Sebastian Giguere.

The other, more high profile trade, saw a significant number of Leafs regulars leave town. Forwards Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman and Jamal Mayers, and defenceman Ian White, were shipped out to the Calgary Flames in exchange for defenceman Dion Phaneuf, forward Frederik Sjostrom, and a young prospect defenceman named Keith Aulie.

At its core, the deal was about shipping out a number of players that the Leafs did not consider a part of their future in exchange for Phaneuf; a young defenceman who had not been able to live up to the promise of his phenomenal rookie season, and who desperately needed a change in scenery. While Sjostrom was an adequate 4th line/penalty killer recommended by Cliff Fletcher, he was largely inconsequential to the deal. The deal was about Phaneuf, first and foremost.

Yet as Leaf fans would learn, the deal was one that Burke and then-Flames GM Daryl Sutter had discussed for sometime. The deal took months to come together, and one of the key factors that caused the deal to take so long to be consummated was Burke's insistence on Calgary's inclusion of Aulie.

Nearly two years after the deal, Aulie has but scratched the surface of his potential to be a key shut-down defender. As one of the many young defenders currently fighting for ice time on the Maple Leafs' blueline, his proximity to reaching his potential as a player gives him the leadoff spot as we venture into the top 10.

Continue reading this post »

Brian Burke's stated goal for building his version of the Maple Leafs has been to start from the net out. Now questions abound about his success (or lack thereof) of solidifying the goaltending position, but it can't be ignored that Burke has added several goaltenders with the potential to succeed, and the maturation process is well underway. In the same vein, Burke has turned his attention to defence.

There have been two common elements Burke has tried to acquire defenceman that are big, mobile and play with a physical edge. Some of his acquisitions lack one or two of these characteristics, but overall that would describe the template of the defenceman Burke has tried to add.

So in the 2011 Draft it wasn't overly surprising that Burke added a young defender who can play at both ends of the rink, uses his skating effectively to break out of his zone, to enter the offensive zone, and to close down oncoming forwards. With the 25th pick in the first round, the Leafs chose Stuart Percy, a dependable two-way defender from the Mississauga St. Michael's Majors.

Percy possesses the ability to contribute in all facets of the game. At just 18 years old, he still has signicant time to improve and evolve into a top four defender at the NHL level. Percy's potential lands him at #11 in our countdown.

Continue reading this post »

During Brian Burke's tenure as General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, he has been adamant in adding a player out of the power forward mould to his top six; someone with size, skill and scoring prowess, and if they happen to be a truculent sort, so be it.

Over the past three years Leafs fans have seen several players attempt to assume that mantle. We saw Christian Hanson try hard but not produce any results. We saw Brayden Irwin lumber up and down the ice like someone put his legs on backwards and then slit an Achilles tendon. We saw Luca Caputi shuttled in and out of the lineup and never get an opportunity to string results together. The team drafted Tyler Biggs this past summer to hopefully one day be that player.

There is one other man who might yet step into those shoes. Slowly developing on the Toronto Marlies, the big German Marcel Mueller has quietly continued to improve and round out his game. He has been given the opportunity to fly under the radar, with attention placed primarily on Joe Colborne and Nazem Kadri's development.

At 6'4" and 212 lbs, Mueller has all the physical tools necessary to be an imposing power forward or the Maple Leafs, and is working on developing a consistent scoring touch to earn his place in the lineup. He could be one of the many Leaf forwards that push the incumbents for a spot in the Top 9 next season. Mueller is our selection at #12 in th Top 25 Under 25.

Continue reading this post »

One thing that any die-hard hockey fan who is self-aware of their own fandom will tell you that 99 times out of 100 they can't help but overvalue their own teams' prospects. It's not meant to be a slight, but it happens; you have a vested interest in the prospects of your team succeeding, and so you may overlook some of their weaknesses as a player, instead choosing to focus on their strengths as a sign of imminent development. Prospects typically get incredibly overvalued when considered as trade bait; every prospect has immense value that can be used to entice another team to forfeit highly sought after players, when the reality is most teams have about 3 or 4 guys with a similar profile to the one you're trying to ship off to them.

If you watch a prospect develop and mature into a key player, you can't help but feel like a proud parent, having watched him blossom from a young man into a professional. When they fail, you can't help but feel a little twinge of disappointment. The odds dictate that even making it to the NHL should be considered a success, let alone becoming a regular NHL player that is considered a core contributor.

WIth that, allow me to introduce the Leaf prospect that invariably ends up failing to live up to our expectations.

Since he was drafted by the Maple Leafs in 2010, Greg Mckegg has rocketed up the depth charts of many Leaf fans. A player who creates offence for himself and for others, McKegg does possess the potential to end up centering (or on the wing; he's capable of playing either position) one of the Leafs top two lines, and strong performances with the Erie Otters (and now the London Knights) have done little to curb this enthusiasm.

But it should be remembered that there was a reason McKegg was available in the 3rd round; he was a player with flaws; there were questions about his consistency (which have subsided a little) and at 6'0" he may be a little undersized for today's NHL.

McKegg possess a very effective offensive game that should hopefully translate well into the pro game. He has plenty of time to grow as a player and develop, so with a heavy emphasis on his potential he is our choice as #13.

Continue reading this post »

via 2.bp.blogspot.com

In several interviews and media appearances this season, Leafs General Manager Brian Burke has expressed his desire to add size and toughness to the forwards. By that statement Burke isn't talking about the Colton Orrs of the world; Burke's decision to waive Orr made it clear that the Leafs are not interested in adding players who fight and contribute nothing else to the team. Rather, Burke wants to add players who blend skill with physicality, who make it difficult for opposing forwards to play against them. The Leafs collective forwards rely on blistering team speed, but Burke (rightly) wants to add another dimension to this team's attack. When a team has the ability to lock down or neutralize the Leafs speed or entry into the zone, they have struggled to generate offence.

Burke wants to add that size and aggressiveness to give the team additional options when attacking offensively. Now while it seems likely that the Leafs will try to trade for such a player this season, or add that element via free agency in the summer. But it is just as likely that the Leafs will try and draft such a player who can contribute in this manner (Tyler Biggs springs to mind).

Through three and a half season with the Portland Winterhawks, winger Brad Ross has demonstrated that he may be this type of player; responsible in both ends of rink, an effective contributor offensively, the type of player who makes life difficult for opposition (through a combination of his forechecking, physical play and agitation), since his draft year has brought to mind visions of the next Darcy Tucker, a beloved Toronto super-pest who scored, fought and generally out-crazied everybody on the ice.

It seems appropriate that, after next season when Darcy Tucker's buyout finally is removed from the Leafs cap, that a potential successor may be ready to take his place. Ross checks in at #14 on our list of the Top 25 Under 25.

Continue reading this post »

When I was younger I played junior hockey for a couple of seasons. Not at the OHL level, mind you, but a lower level. Junior C, mostly. My first season in junior hockey I split my time between two teams in different levels. While I enojoyed getting additional playing time by going back and forth between two teams, I did find it frustrating having to adjust my game based on my coaches' expectations.

At the higher level, I was considered much lower on the teams' depth chart, and received ice time accordingly. I found it frustrating having to sti and watch for stretches of the game and towards the end of the game, when the coach would rely on his more experienced defenceman.

At the lower level, I would get significant amounts of playing time, since at that level the coaches considered me to be one of our team's top defenders, and they entrusted me in all situations. But while that was nice, there was still some frustration because I felt as if I should be playing for the team at the higher level full time.

Because of that first-hand experience, I can understand to an extent what Korbinan Holzer must be going through this season, having been shuttled back and forth between the Toronto Marlies and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Holzer has been an invaluable contributor to the Leafs organization this season; taking on key roles and being relied upon as a #1 defeceman in the AHL, and coming up and watching from the press box to cover for injuries to other defenceman in the NHL.

Holzer finds himself occupying the dreaded "tweener" role; caught between two where he seems to be too good to remain in the AHL, but at the same time he hasn't yet established himself as an NHL player yet.

Holzer's accomplishments to date in the AHL, and the promise that he still holds at the NHL level, sees him land at #15 on our list.

Continue reading this post »

There's a point in the development of all prospects where the team has to assess whether the player is ready to take the next step forward and move up to a league where he will face a greater challenge.

Sometimes the move is forced; a player finishes eligibility in either Major Junior or College hockey, and the team has to assess whether the player is ready to take that next step into the pros. Sometimes the move is whether the player is ready to step up a rung on the professional hockey ladder, from the ECHL to the AHL, or from the AHL up to the NHL.

Development does not always run on a constant uphill trajectory; not every player follows the same trajectory to the NHL Countless players reach a plateau at one of the many checkpoints on the way to the NHL and even then arriving at the promised land is by no means a guarantee they stay there.

In rare cases taking a step back is what is most beneficial for a player's future prospects, rather than a de facto death sentence for their chances as a prospect of the organization. While it's still too early to say for certain, the Leafs may just have one of those players in their system, a young kid trying to beat long odds from his draft position and contribute at the NHL level.

Coming at #16 on our list of the Top 25 Under 25 is Jerry D'Amigo.

Continue reading this post »

Tyler Biggs has an uphill battle to earn the trust of the Maple Leafs faithful.

At the 2011 Entry Draft, Brian Burke swapped the 30th pick in the draft (acquired from Boston in the Tomas Kaberle trade) and their own 2nd round pick (39th) to move up to 22nd in the draft and select Biggs, the big physical forward from the US National Development Team. As the team had surrendered its own first round picks in 2010 and 2011 in acquiring Phil Kessel from the Bruins, Biggs would be the first player to be selected by the Leafs in the first round of the draft since Nazem Kadri in 2009.

The selection was not particularly well received.

I don't like Tyler Biggs as a prospect, and like with the Russian prospects I should state again that this is not based on the recent Under-18's, but rather based on my long-term evaluation of Biggs. He skates fine, and well for a big guy, projects very well in the physical game, can shoot the puck and flashes offensive skill here and there. However he just doesn't do enough good things over a substantial sample size to warrant consideration into a higher ranking in my opinion. Overall, he's all right with the puck, but there are moments where he'll be decent, and moments where he looks like his hands are made of rock. His hockey IQ is fringe, and doesn't have the right combination of skills to project as a scorer. Biggs will be a player you throw out there to jet around, bang bodies, score a few here and there and maybe plant in front of the net on a power play, but there's simply too much wrong in key areas and not enough right in others to supplement that to think he's anything but a lower-tier prospect.

- Corey Pronman, Puck Prospectus

Corey Pronman is by no means perfect in his evaluations (he's well known for all but ignoring goaltenders as prospects, and as a whole I think he overrates players in Detroit's system), but he lays out some of Biggs' deficiencies as a player. His offensive skills were considered to be limited compared to some of the other players available at his slot in the draft.

This post is not about whether Biggs was the right pick or not. Biggs is a Toronto Maple Leafs prospect, one that possesses a good mix of size, skill and physicality, and that was the reason for Biggs being chosen as the #17 player on our Top 25 Under 25.

Continue reading this post »

Recent history of the Toronto Maple Leafs goaltending has made one topic very common in our conversations; goaltending and save percentage. At this point, we have pretty well-defined what level of goaltending is required to be considered a competent NHL goaltender, how to correct for fluctuations over time to understand the true talent level of a goaltender, and what sort of progression you would need through the minor leagues. We could probably teach a master class on goaltending statistical analysis.

With limited opportunities to sign a marquee goaltender through free agency, with post-traumatic stress disorder from the last times the Lefas tried to trade for goaltending, and with a long development curve needed for virtually all goaltenders drafted today, the Leafs have taken to acquiring highly rated free agents from Europe and the NCAA to plug them in to the system towards the end of their developmental system. In just over a calendar year the team acquired Jonas Gustavsson, Jussi Rynnas and Ben Scrivens, to varying degrees of success.

Leaf fans now understand that good goalies can be found via this method, but the lack of significant development time (all three goalies above were acquired at or around the age of 24/25) the chances of finding a goalie with enough time to develop into a key player is low.

Last summer the Leafs acquired yet another young goalie via this method. On the surface the transaction was no different than the others that preceded it. But halfway through his rookie season in North America, Mark ("Awful Nickname") Owuya has been able to match or exceed the combined ECHL/AHL stats that got us excited about Ben Scrivens last year, with a key caveat that Owuya is three years younger at the age of 22.

With that extra time to develop, Owuya is our pick at #18 on the list of the Top 25 Under 25.

Continue reading this post »

Based on the reputation certain teams in the NHL have for scouting and drafting talent late in the draft, if you had to steal a European forward in a later round out from under one team, you'd probably want to be poaching the Detroit Red Wings.

In the 3rd round of the 2010 NHL Draft, the Toronto Maple Leafs made a trade with the Los Angeles Kings to acquire their 79th pick in the draft so they could move ahead of the Wings and take Olden, a lanky Norwegian centre who had just completed a strong season in Sweden's junior leagues. The Leafs were enamoured with his offensive skill set but also with his two-way play. And as one of the youngest players selected in the 2010 Draft, Olden would have plenty of time to add the size needed to compete at the pro level (6'3", 176 at the time of the draft) and develop his game.

The forward was always expected to be something of a long-term project, but just one and a half years into his development he has been slowly progressing. Olden's future potential secures him spot #19 on our list of the top 25 Leafs under 25.

Continue reading this post »

From the 1994 Draft (when the league expanded to 26 teams) until the 2005 Draft (of which players are just turning 25), just 22.5% of all players selected in the 7th round have managed to play at least one game in the NHL.

12.5% of all players selected in the 7th round have played more than 100 games in the NHL. And just 7.5% managed to have a moderately successful career by playing more than 300 games.

For the Saskatoon Blades winger, and Toronto Maple Leafs 2010 7th round pick Josh Nicholls, that means the odds of Nicholls achieving sucess as a pro are not overly high.

But to date, Nicholls has been a revelation in the WHL and is making a case that he might be one of the roughly one in five that makes it to the NHL. His stunning progression as a prospect propels him into the top 20 of our Top 25 Under 25.

Continue reading this post »

via hogtownhockey.com

One of the challenges with this exercise is weighing current accomplishments against future potential. When you have a collection of young players between the ages of 18 and 24, some still developing in amateur leagues, others transitioning from one professional league to another, it makes comparing apples to apples exceedingly difficult. An older player might be obviously a better hockey player than a younger one, but the younger one might possess the potential to be a more important player to the organization, provided they get there. Creating a list of the Top 25 players under the age of 25 requires balancing the short-term "Who's better right now?" with a bit of analysis "Who will be better down the road?"

Picking Josh Leivo as #21 on the list of the Leafs' Top 25 Under 25 required us to consider this question to put him ahead of Jussi Rynnas. Rynnas has been a professional for five years in Finland and North America, while Leivo is in the middle of just his second season with the Sudbury Wolves of the OHL. Rynnas is an objectively better hockey player today than Leivo. But Leivo is also six years younger than the Finnish tender, and the 3rd round pick has the potential to grow into a dependable NHLer.

In this instance, potential trumped accomplishments, and the young winger gets the nod at #21.

Continue reading this post »

Becoming a professional hockey player takes tremendous amounts of skill, hard work, and luck.

The first two are pretty obvious as to why they're important. But luck plays a huge factor. Playing for one team instead of another where you might be further down the depth chart. Having your team make transactions that either increase or decrease the competition you have for a spot on the team. Having your team move away from your style of play. Each of these seemingly minor decisions can end up having huge ripples on the future career of young professional players.

For Jussi Rynnas, the biggest opportunity for his career has also become the biggest challenge in his success; the wasteland that was the Toronto Maple Leafs' goaltending in 2009-10.

After the sucktacular goaltending the Leafs received that season from Vesa Toskala, Jonas Gustavsson, Joey MacDonald and Jean-Sebastian Giguere, the Leafs were active in trying to procure young goaltenders to fix the problem of shoddy goaltending that had plagued the team since the lockout. The Leafs went out in the summer of 2010 and added two young free agent goaltenders to compete in the minors with James Reimer; Cornell grad Ben Scrivens, and young Finnish goalie, and #22 in our top 25, Jussi Rynnas.

Continue reading this post »

As the youngest member of the Toronto Marlies...

(checks Twitter feed).

Damnit.

As the youngest member of the Reading Royals of the ECHL, Kenny Ryan has spent much of the season watching and learning how to become a professional hockey player. There's probably a good debate to be had about whether Ryan would be better served to have spent the first half of the season as effectively the 13th forward on a pretty decent Toronto Marlies squad, or having been someone responsible for carrying a heavy workload for the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL. Yesterday the organization chose Secret Door #3 and sent Ryan to their ECHL affiliate in Reading, where he will get a similar opportunity to be the key player as he would have in Windsor, but he also gets to play against fully-grown men and familiarize himself with the grind of a professional hockey schedule.

All of this seems to indicate that as far as the Leafs organization is concerned, the young kid from Michigan is ready to be a pro, and they are giving him plenty of time to grow into his game. That confidence is enough for us to choose Kenny Ryan as #23 in our Top 25.

Continue reading this post »

via blogs.pjstar.com

Generally speaking, if you manage to get a dependable AHL defenceman out of your 5th round draft pick, that's probably a win for your scouting staff.

Halfway through his third professional season in North America, Juraj Mikus is soldifying his spot on the Toronto Marlies blueline, enough to make him #24 in our list of the Top 25 prospects under 25.

The rangy Slovak was a 5th round pick back in 2007, after collecting an impressive 9 goals and 24 points in 42 games as an 18-year old in Slovakia's U20 league, and playing 22 games for Dukla Trencin in the top Slovakian professional league. At the draft Mikus was considered a long-term project, but a player that also possessed all of the raw skills to be an effective two-way defender, rolled up into a 6'4" package.

Continue reading this post »

*This post is dedicated to leafer1984.*

The first official member of our Top 25 is also no longer with the organization.

Yesterday afternoon news broke that the Maple Leafs had send the winger to Anaheim in exchange for Nicolas Deschamps. Chemmy covered the transaction, which amounted to a swap of two minor-league that had dropped down on their teams depth charts.

Even though Luca has fallen out of favour with the Toronto Maple Leafs, he was still a prospect of the team at the time these rankings were compiled, and so he retains his spot at #25 in our rankings.

Continue reading this post »

via kylecicerella.files.wordpress.com

The crapshoot that is trying to develop young players into NHL calibre athletes is not easy. Each team has scores of young men who came up short in their quest to reach the show. WIth 45 players under the age of 25 either under contract to the Maple Leafs or whose rights are owned by the Leafs, there are certainly a number of these young men that will eventually fail to ever pull on a Maple Leafs sweater. In ranking the Top 25 Under 25, our job was to make an objective analysis of who are the most likely to fulfill their potential and make meaningful contributions at the NHL level. Five years from now, hopefully we'll remember some of these young players as kids that we recognized the potential they had early on. Or, we'll just pretend that this never happened.

We won't go through and look at everyone who failed to make our top 25, but since our process involved assigning ratings to the top 30, let's take a look at the five players who finished just outside the Top 25.

Continue reading this post »