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.