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)
The Leafs have continued to be aggressive in their pursuit of free agents coming from Europe, the CHL or NCAA products and in late March signed forward Alex Steeves to a three-year entry-level contract.
Born in Minnesota, the dual citizen played three years at Notre Dame, combining for 60 points (26 goals, 34 assists) in his sophomore and junior seasons and ranked 10th in scoring in the NCAA in the 2020-21 campaign.
Alex Steeves (undrafted) scores his 15th goal of the season for Notre Dame.
According to the 2019 HockeyProspect.com Black Book, the 5’11”, 185 lb. center has some offensive skill and can make plays, but his skating was the big red flag for scouts in his draft year. The Leafs are never shy to take on projects in hopes that they can improve and be useful at the AHL or NHL level, and it sounds as if Steeves falls into that category.
The 21-year-old took advantage of the Leafs developmental staff during the summer working with skating guru Barb Underhill and impressed at the club’s camp this weekend, scoring three goals in the annual Blue and White scrimmages.
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