The Toronto Maple Leafs organization has drafted and developed a number of youngsters currently playing in the NHL like Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, Pierre Engvall, Travis Dermott and Justin Holl, but the next step for the club under GM Kyle Dubas is to keep replenishing the prospect pool to provide the Leafs with youngsters who can step up and replace veterans who retire, depart via free agency or are traded.
As we did last year, we will rank the club’s top prospects over the next few 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:
#40 - Jeremy McKenna – RW (Wichita – ECHL, Toronto – AHL)
#39 – Ryan Tverberg – C (Connecticut – NCAA)
#38 – Ryan O’Connell – D (Ohio State – NCAA)
#37 - Semyon Kizimov – RW (Lada Togliatti – VHL / Torpedo – KHL)
#36 - Wyatt Schingoethe – C (Waterloo – USHL)
#35 - Kalle Loponen – D (Karpat – Finland SM-Liiga)
#34 - Vladislav Kara – LW (Cherepovets Severstal/Moscow Spartak – KHL)
#33 - Kirill Semyonov – C (Avangard Omsk – KHL)
#32 - William Villeneuve – D (Saint John – QMJHL)
#31 - Ty Voit – LW (Sarnia – OHL)
#30 – Joe Miller – C(Chicago – USHL
#29 - Brennan Menell – D (Minsk Dynamo – KHL)
#28 - John Fusco – D (Harvard – NCAA)
#27 - Axel Rindell – D (Jukurit – Finland SM-Liiga)
#26 - Noel Hoefenmayer – D (Toronto - AHL)
#25 - Alex Steeves – C (Notre Dame – NCAA)
#24 - Teemu Kivihalme - D (Toronto - AHL)
#23 - Kristians Rubins - D (Toronto - AHL / Frederikshavn - Denmark)
#22 - Ian Scott – G (Toronto - AHL)
#21 – Veeti Miettinen – RW (St. Cloud St. – NCAA)
#20 – Artur Akhtyamov – G (Ak Bars Kazan – MHL/VHL/KHL)
#19 – Filip Kral - D (Kometa Brno – Czech, Toronto - AHL)
#18 - Joseph Duszak - D (Toronto - AHL)
#17 – Mac Hollowell - D (Toronto – AHL / TuTo Turku – Finland Mestis)
#16 – Semyon Der-Argushintsev - C (Torpedo – KHL, Toronto - AHL)
#15 – Pavel Gogolev – LW (Vasby IK – Swe-1, Toronto – AHL)
#14 - Pontus Holmberg – LW (Vaxjo HC – SHL)
#13 – Mikko Kokkonen – D (Jukurit Mikkeli – Finland SM-Liiga, Toronto - AHL)
#12 – Joseph Woll – G (Toronto – AHL)
After years of using trades to acquire their goalie of the future, the Toronto Maple Leafs hoped that developmental projects would become contributors at the NHL level in the next few years.
Ian Scott made a big leap in 2019, winning CHL Goaltender of the Year and making Team Canada for the 2019 World Junior, but had injury setbacks have limited the 22 year old to six games in the ECHL and AHL the last two seasons. Akhtyamov has played in three professional levels in Russia and backed up Yaroslav Askarov at the 2021 World Junior, but is thought to be a long-range prospect.
The Leafs best prospect between the pipes continues to be Joseph Woll, but the 23-year-old is reaching a crossroads with the Toronto organization after two subpar years with the AHL Marlies.
Selected in the third round of the 2016 NHL Draft, Woll is a big, lanky goaltender (6’4”, 202 lb) who played in the US National Development Program and three seasons with Boston College, making 30+ starts each year.
Woll won a gold medal with Team USA at the 2017 World Juniors as a backup to Tyler Parsons and put up very good numbers as the starter for the US in his second WJC appearance in 2018.
Woll was put in the position of starting his pro career as the primary starter with the AHL Marlies in 2019 after Scott’s season-ending hip injury, but the promotion of head coach Sheldon Keefe to replace Mike Babcock and the call up of many players to the NHL caused a bit of chaos with the Leafs affiliate.
After starting the year 3-1-2 under Keefe, Woll went 11-16-3 and finished the season with a 3.75 GAA and .880 save percentage in 32 games before the league shut down in March. The Missouri native numbers improved slightly in an abbreviated AHL season, with a 3.54 GAA, .892 save percentage and a .500 record (7-7-0) in 15 games.
Leafs GM Kyle Dubas made a concerted effort to improve the American League affiliate by adding veterans that would make the Marlies more competitive, including adding European import Erik Kallgren and veteran Michael Hutchinson to their goaltending depth, but just like 2021, Toronto’s goaltenders have been struck by the injury bug, as Scott and Petr Mrazek are currently on the injured list.
Woll was on IR most of training camp with an undisclosed injury, but was activated from injured reserve on Tuesday and is expected to make his first AHL start this weekend.
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