Pontus Holmbergis probably the player on this list that is least likely to make a repeat appearance next year. A smallish forward, with skill and playmaking abilities as strengths, his numbers in his rookie SHL campaign will likely have us praising him as the next Andreas Johnsson. I’m starting to rethink not putting him on my list.

Riley Stotts some of us were excited about a new playmaking center being drafted (5 of us), but the majority think it’s too soon to be excited about Stotts who has a chance to take on a bigger role with the Calgary Hitmen this year. Potential middle six centers always have value and I’d expect his stock to rise. The highest ranking this year for Stotts was 14th.

Currently, on the left side of the defence, the Leafs are running Gardiner-Rielly-Dermott at the NHL level, with Calle Rosen and Andreas Borgman both having NHL experience on the Marlies. Martin Marincin’s full-time NHL career is probably a moot point in this organization, so at best, he’s slotting in as the Leafs’ sixth best option there, but with the addition of Rasmus Sandin in this year’s draft, Nielsen’s fighting an uphill battle.

Hollowell’s scoring exploded last season. His 0.89 points per game was good for 9th overall amongst OHL defenders. This is pretty similar to his teammate and fellow Leafs prospect Rasmus Sandin, who scored 0.88 P/GP. Furthermore, if we only look at primary points per game, Hollowell was 6th overall amongst OHL defenders.

Despite a disappointing season, Subban has shown his potential, and there remains reason to believe that a bounceback season could be on the horizon. Should Kyle Dubas’ bet on Subban as a reclamation project succeed, Subban’s progression as a decent mid-level prospect could be right back on track before we know it. While Subban’s progression has taken a strange turn downward, there’s nothing here to suggest this trend cannot be reversed with even a different stroke of luck.

Räsänen is obviously not without skill, but his skating leaves something to be desired, and he can be outmaneuvered by smaller players. However, he has continued to improve after 2 years in the OHL, and time competing at a higher level in the KHL can only do him good, assuming he’s able to stick on Jokerit’s regular roster.

The best comparable is probably sitting in the Leafs organization right now, and that’s Jordan Subban. Both are undersized with offensive flair, who need a bit more time to see if they can be NHL players, but with the very real acknowledgement that it will be a longshot for them to become NHL regulars.

Being able to enter the zone with control of the puck as a defenceman, is a very important skill to have in the modern hockey landscape. Kral was in the 91st-percentile in controlled entries per hour, then again he did not have a very preferable success rate. This is telling that Kral attempted a ton of zone entries in control – which is also something nice to see. Even if he was not very successful, being able to try this and potentially getting better at doing so, is something to look for in a prospect.

His speed, reach, and hockey sense have always been good, but as his icetime goes up, he’s shown that he can produce more offensively as well. I know getting excited about a 3rd line winger seems like a challenge, but I do believe that Korshkov is well on his way to being the exact kind of 3rd line winger you’d want to see.

I’d argue that we might have got a bit more out of him than we were expecting going into the season. He made the Leafs right out of training camp, even though it was short-lived, and had arguably his best season to date with the Marlies. Starting the season at 23, he’s beginning to reach the age where what we get from him is about what we should expect from him in the future, so a defenseman with a chance to add a bit of depth to the Leafs certainly isn’t a bad thing, especially since we got him for free.

Things took a step back, hype-wise, for Brooks this year. With only 19 points in the regular season, he hasn’t made much of his limited opportunity. There’s obviously still hope, as this was only his first season in the AHL. However, there’s definitely a lot of ground to make up before he can crack an NHL roster.

His numbers may not jump off the page at you, but when you look at the context of him being a pass-first player on a terrible Peterborough Petes team which didn’t score much while also considering the kid turned 17 right before the season started, your hopes should rise a bit. I’m already trying to find somewhere I can consistently stream Petes games because I think he could really break out in his D+1 and also because he’s just a blast to watch.

The pair share a swiss army knife ability to perform any role asked of them, primarily resulting in heavy minutes on the penalty kill along with a generous dose of matchups against top competition. Both Moore and Hyman are terrific defensive players in their own right as well, ones who are rarely, if ever, get caught out of position. They seamlessly fit the Babcockian mould, their playing styles equal parts responsible and earnest enough to force their coach to shed heavy Saskatchewan tears.

Engvall proved himself to be an all situations player who could be trotted out on the power play, but also one that you can rely on in the final minutes of protecting the lead in a close game. The fact that Engvall was able to be so effective so fast for the Marlies, and inspire confidence that figuring out the smaller ice surface wouldn’t be an issue.

If Leafs fans want a decent comparable style-wise, Woll likely projects to play a similar game to Martin Jones out in San Jose. He’s not overly flexible (what the youths like to call “athletic”, as if there are still goaltenders out there shaped like Turk Broda) but has a good sense of awareness within the blue paint, so you’ll rarely catch him wildly out of position.

He’s not the most prolific of puck-handlers, either, much like Jones – but in case you’ve missed the Western Conference games over the last few years, the San Jose starter’s minimalist movements have served him pretty well. If that’s the ceiling for Woll, it’s a pretty decent one to hope for.

Since we’ve already made not of Timashov being one of the top scorers on the Marlies throughout the regular season, and hinted at the marked improvement over his AHL rookie season, we’ll use this space to mention that Timashov was a .6 PPG player in the AHL playoffs, including six goals. Playing a key role on a Calder Cup team is probably something that was very much noted by Kyle Dubas, and as well as the trust that Sheldon Keefe showed in him throughout the year, as he was one of the few guys to not be rotating in and out of the lineup.

Durzi needed to have a big year to remain on NHL draft radars, and deliver he did. He put up 49 points in 40 games and followed it up with 16 points in 11 playoff games, which put him second in the OHL in points per game behind 10th overall pick Evan Bouchard.

Remember, it’s hard to make that transition from junior to pros. Bracco went from playing on the top line with lots of ice time against players his age or younger to playing more of a bottom-six role against tougher competition. He did pretty well under those circumstances, and this next year is going to be a telling one in terms of Bracco’s overall development.

This upcoming season he’s set to make a jump competition-wise, playing against grown men through either the Swedish league or the AHL. For that reason, we’ll expect his production and usage to take a substantial hit, but if he’s on this side of the pond at least we’ll be able to see more of his talent on display, much like with Liljegren last year, One thing Sandin has in his pocket is that he’s already adapted to smaller ice, whereas Liljegren specifically pointed to that adjustment taking a while last season.

Grundstrom has shown that he knows how to make things happen in the offensive areas of the ice, and he’s no slouch defensively either. If the young winger log jam didn’t exist, we’d all probably be penciling Carl in next to Kadri in our lineups.

I really don’t expect Johnsson to fill the offensive shoes of JVR, which is sort of unfair in the first place. But he does seem stronger on the other side of the puck, so maybe his ability to tilt the ice in the run of play will present a net positive.

If the Leafs feel that the way to make Liljegren the best possible defenseman he can be is by throwing him into a learn on the job situation on the Leafs, let’s get going on that, but I suspect that Babcock, Keefe, and Dubas want to see more in the AHL before testing the NHL waters.