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The Toronto Maple Leafs organization has drafted and developed a number of youngsters currently playing in the NHL (Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, Pierre Engvall, and Justin Holl), but the club under GM Kyle Dubas has 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 upcoming 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 - Vladislav Kara – LW (Yugra - VHL)
#39 - Kalle Loponen – D (Koo Koo Kouvola/JyP HT – Finland SM-Liiga)
#38 - Jeremy McKenna – RW (Wichita – ECHL, Toronto – AHL)
#37 - John Fusco – D (Harvard – NCAA)
#36 - Noel Hoefenmayer – D (Newfoundland – ECHL, Toronto – AHL)
#35 - Ryan Chyzowski - LW (Newfoundland - ECHL, Toronto - AHL)
#34 - Braeden Kressler - C (Flint - OHL)
#33 - Nikita Grebyonkin - RW (Stalnye Lisy - MHL, Magnitogorsk - KHL)
#32 - Vyacheslav Peksa - G (Ibris Kazan - MHL)
#31 - Dryden McKay - G (Minnesota Duluth - NCAA)
#30 - Bobby McMann - C (Newfoundland - ECHL, Toronto - AHL)
#29 - Pavel Gogolev – LW (Newfoundland - ECHL, Toronto – AHL)
#28 - Joe Miller – C (Chicago – USHL)
#27 Veeti Miettinen – RW (St. Cloud St. – NCAA)
The Maple Leafs chose to go heavy on European prospects in the 2020 NHL Draft, likely because they would have more time to develop in their home countries or in the NCAA while Toronto retained their rights. The club selected four players from Finland (including Roni Hirvonen and Topi Niemela, who are both playing in the 2022 World Junior in Edmonton). With the first pick in the sixth round, Toronto selected forward Veeti Miettinen.
Miettinen was a scoring star at the junior level and played internationally. The 20-year-old had 69 goals in 100 games the last two seasons in the under-20 level of the Finnish sm-liiga and set the all-time record of 42 goals in 2020. The belief was that he purposely played at a lower level to retain his eligibility to play college hockey in the US.
Ranked #29 in the Hockey News Top 100 NCAA players in 2020, Miettinen excelled as a freshman, leading St. Cloud State in scoring with 24 points (11 goals, 13 assists) in 31 games and named NCHC rookie of the year and a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, but the 5’9”, 159 lb. winger took a step backward in his sophomore campaign, scoring 23 points (10 goals, 13 assists) in 37 games.
He is known for his excellent shot and good footwork, but needs to work on his speed to be able to create space in the offensive zone
The HockeyProspect.com Black Book loves Miettinen’s skill set and believes that he has the potential to be a top-six NHL winger, while Elite Prospects believes he has quality release is a real power play threat from the half-wall, but it is likely that he will remain in college the full four years at St. Cloud State to give the Leafs more time to evaluate his future prospects.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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