Who Is the Toronto Maple Leafs Top Prospect?
In past years, it was such an easy question: The Toronto Maple Leafs Top Prospect was Morgan Rielly, then it was William Nylander, Mitch Marner, and for a summer, Auston Matthews. But those guys have all graduated into successful NHL players. So who is the current top prospect?
While he is no Marner or Matthews, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ current top prospect is Kasperi Kapanen. The Finnish 5’11, 180 lbs right-shooting right-winger was acquired in the Phil Kessel trade, and is currently tearing up the AHL.
So far this year for the Toronto Marlies, Kapanen has 33 points (including 16 goals) in 33 games. This shows impressive growth over last season. He is averaging a goal every other game this year, whereas last year he was scoring every fourth game.
Toronto Call Up
Last year, the Leafs gave Kapanen a nine-game trial run. While he didn’t score any goals or points, he did post a 51% CF rating, which is arguably more important.
Playing on a line with Nylander and Hyman, the three rookies managed to control a majority of the play and put more shots on the net then they allowed. They were rookies. They did it while playing for a 30th place team. It’s very impressive. Sure, you’d like to have seen a few points, but any time a rookie can be positive possession player, that is a significant accomplishment.
By being a point-per-game AHL player, and a positive possession player in his first taste of NHL action, the odds of big-league success for Kapanen look extremely high.
Going Forward
The rebuild is going far better than even the most optimistic person could have foreseen. Less than two years removed from Randy Carlyle and Dave Nonis, the Toronto Maple Leafs have seen all their top prospects graduate to the NHL.
While this is obviously important, it means that they don’t currently have a “blue chip” top-prospect. No doubt Kapanen is good – an ex-first rounder and potential 30 goal scorer is nothing to laugh at – but he’s no Marner or Matthews.
Still, Kapanen is an exciting prospect. But where will he play when he finally makes the NHL? With the Toronto Maple Leafs having a bizarre amount of rookies and a lot of depth in the ‘skilled winger’ department, Kapanen may make attractive trade bait.
Or he might end up in the NHL sooner than later – who says a fourth line can’t have skill on it (look at Columbus and Pittsburgh)? Who says you have to limit how many rookies you play?
If Kapanen keeps playing as he has been, the Leafs will have no choice but to promote him. Then we’ll be asking who the Leafs’ best prospect is all over again.
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