2022 Leafs Board Prospect Rankings #3

[notbias]

There's no guarantee that Amirov will recover from his brain tumor. For that reason I would exclude him from the list altogether.

Painful for management and fans when you look at how Seth Jones, Dawson Mercer and Braden Schneider have progressed.

Has Schneider progressed? he is playing as a #6 and didn't look good, no?

 

[Voodoo Child]

I must say this is one area were the team must be close to the bottom of the league in and that is prospect depth from #4 onward.

STINK

Topi.

And yes, it’s a very shallow pool. As much as people love Knies, he’s 3rd or 4th in a deep prospect pool and Robertson is 6th-8th and dropping.

 

[JSn0w93]

Has Schneider progressed? he is playing as a #6 and didn't look good, no?

He's 20. The vast majority of prospects his age haven't even played in the AHL. But back to the topic at hand.

 

[stickty111]

Topi.

And yes, it’s a very shallow pool. As much as people love Knies, he’s 3rd or 4th in a deep prospect pool and Robertson is 6th-8th and dropping.

Have to disagree with this.

 

[JSn0w93]

Topi.

And yes, it’s a very shallow pool. As much as people love Knies, he’s 3rd or 4th in a deep prospect pool and Robertson is 6th-8th and dropping.

Yeah this isn't a shallow pool, I don't think there is a team in the NHL that Robertson would be 8th on their list.

 

[Looney Toonies]

Topi.

And yes, it’s a very shallow pool. As much as people love Knies, he’s 3rd or 4th in a deep prospect pool and Robertson is 6th-8th and dropping.

How exactly is Robertson dropping? PPG in The AHL as a 20 year old.

 

[Voodoo Child]

How exactly is Robertson dropping? PPG in The AHL as a 20 year old.

And that’s promising but the Leafs have had wing spots open to take for a while now and he hasn’t, and the durability is a concern with him - there are no fluke injuries.

He’s a small, toolsy forward with a great shot, but he’s 21 on game one and that’s well into prospect middle age for guys like him.

If he doesn’t grab a spot this year then he never will.

As for Knies, he certainly has a ton of ‘it’ - the size, skating and shot are all there and he’s a smart player, but will he be able to put it all together?

I’d say they’d rank around there on Arizona, Jersey, Detroit, Ottawa, Montreal, Chicago and Dallas, but they’re all bad teams and had many high picks…

 

[Maplebeasts]

Topi.

And yes, it’s a very shallow pool. As much as people love Knies, he’s 3rd or 4th in a deep prospect pool and Robertson is 6th-8th and dropping.

A 20 year old PPG AHL winger is in almost every team's top 4. Ridiculous take.

 

[kerk]

And that’s promising but the Leafs have had wing spots open to take for a while now and he hasn’t, and the durability is a concern with him - there are no fluke injuries.

He’s a small, toolsy forward with a great shot, but he’s 21 on game one and that’s well into prospect middle age for guys like him.

If he doesn’t grab a spot this year then he never will.

As for Knies, he certainly has a ton of ‘it’ - the size, skating and shot are all there and he’s a smart player, but will he be able to put it all together?

I’d say they’d rank around there on Arizona, Jersey, Detroit, Ottawa, Montreal, Chicago and Dallas, but they’re all bad teams and had many high picks…

wow, an 18/19/20 year old winger wasn't ready to play full time top-6 NHL minutes? must be a bust

 

[Canada4Gold]

A 20 year old PPG AHL winger is in almost every team's top 4. Ridiculous take.

wow, an 18/19/20 year old winger wasn't ready to play full time top-6 NHL minutes? must be a bust

Come on guys. The examples are endless. Look no further than Nick's brother. Drafted in 2017. Only played 3 NHL games before his 21st birthday. Turned out terribly. He was a complete bust. Dallas should have traded him to us before he lost all his value.

 

[The Iceman]

My original post might not have been written clearly.
After Knies, Robertson , Topi.

I think our 4-10 are very weak compared to other teams 4-10.
How can it not be when most other teams have kept their draft picks for the most part over the past 5 years where the Leafs haven't.

Not a slight on the Leafs drafting. Just a fact of NHL life. I don't see a single future potential top 6F or top 4D from prospects 4-10

 

[Canada4Gold]

My original post might not have been written clearly.
After Knies, Robertson , Topi.

I think our 4-10 are very weak compared to other teams 4-10.
How can it not be when most other teams have kept their draft picks for the most part over the past 5 years where the Leafs haven't.

Not a slight on the Leafs drafting. Just a fact of NHL life. I don't see a single future potential top 6F or top 4D from prospects 4-10

Since Dubas took over(5 drafts ago) the Leafs have picked in each round the following number of times

1st: 2
2nd: 5
3rd: 5
4th: 6
5th: 5
6th: 5
7th: 7

So if our only piece of information was the rounds we drafted in one might expect the top few spots of the pool to be barren but 4-10 should be relatively equal to anyone else as we've picked an average number of spots in round 2 and 3.

Fortunately we have more information that than and a lot of the recent picks have been trending above average.2022 is yet to be seen but from 2019 to 2021 I would suggest all of the following would be picked higher if the those draft were happening today instead: Knies, Voit, Hirvonen, Niemela, Miettinen, Tverberg, Robertson, Abruzzese. Guys like Villeneuve, Ovchinnikov, Kokkonen, Abramov, Koster likely go around the same spot. Amirov obviously drops due to health issues. Then guys like Miller, Akhtyamov and Rindell I'm not sure, and there's 4 guys who likely go undrafted but 3 of those were 7th rounders anyway and the other way a 6th rounder. Then there's also Kral and Holmberg from 2018 who still count as prospects and are trending well, and Steeves which was a really solid UDFA signing. It's completely reasonable for the middle of our pool to be above average considering the average number of picks we've had in the middle rounds and the above average progress of a lot of those selections.

 

[stickty111]

And that’s promising but the Leafs have had wing spots open to take for a while now and he hasn’t, and the durability is a concern with him - there are no fluke injuries.

He’s a small, toolsy forward with a great shot, but he’s 21 on game one and that’s well into prospect middle age for guys like him.

If he doesn’t grab a spot this year then he never will.

As for Knies, he certainly has a ton of ‘it’ - the size, skating and shot are all there and he’s a smart player, but will he be able to put it all together?

I’d say they’d rank around there on Arizona, Jersey, Detroit, Ottawa, Montreal, Chicago and Dallas, but they’re all bad teams and had many high picks…

By this logic, Kadri was out of the top 10 when he couldn't make the Leafs as a what 20 year old? Liljegren was fortunate Leafs didn't buyout his ELC since he didn't make it as a 21 year old either