2025 Toronto Maple Leafs Prospect Pyramid!

2025 Toronto Maple Leafs Prospect Pyramid!

Ah, back in the blue room! Time for the 2025 
Toronto Maple Leafs Prospect Pyramid. Quick little reintroduction. My name is Steve Dangle, and what 
the prospect pyramid is is something I invented 2017ish. No, is it 2016? 2016, when Matthews and 
Marner and Nylander were rookies and the prospect pyramid was big and plentiful. Basically, 
instead of ranking the prospects 1 through 10 or 1 through 20 or 1 through 25, I would rank 
them in tiers. Tier one is a generational like a franchise cornerstone type guy. Auston Matthews, 
Connor Bedard, Macklin Celebrini, Connor McDavid, think along those lines. Tier two is below that, 
but still incredibly good. I had, for example, William Nylander there. There’s a guy who’s a 
top 10 pick, wasn’t a top five pick. We knew he was going to be good. We knew he was going to 
have a long NHL career, perhaps not this good. Trying to think of some other guys who might have 
fit into that category. Maybe someone along the lines of like I would say the Habs have a bunch 
of them. Like a Cole Caulfield, a Nick Suzuki, Lane Hutson, Hobey Baker type guys. Really, really 
solid like world junior leading their team in OHL or junior scoring type guys. Tier three, guys who 
are more than likely going to play. They don’t necessarily have the highest ceiling, but they are 
going to play. They’re going to have an NHL career that spans probably hopefully hundreds of games. 
It’s just a matter of where is that ceiling at. Tier four might play a cup of coffee. Might have 
a long NHL career. We just need to see, got to see more out of them. Like I had Nikita Soshnikov 
in tier four. I also had Zach Hyman in tier four. I had Connor Brown in tier three. It’s, it’s all 
over the place. Tier five are your very long shots but still noteworthy enough to mention and then 
there’s everybody else. We don’t have time to go through everybody. That would be insane.
But in the past, we have definitely tried. This year, I want to do it a little different. I want 
to do it a little more informal because the 2016 Leafs prospect cupboard is not the same as it 
is in 2025. The Leafs don’t have a tier one prospect. Of course, they don’t. I don’t think 
they have a tier 2 prospect. That might be harsh on Easton Cowan. I have him as like a high-end 
tier three. Listen, the Leafs are scraping the bottom of the barrel here. They don’t really have 
any picks for the future. They didn’t really have many prospects for the future, but they had a guy 
like Fraser Mntten – traded him. They had a guy like Nikita Grebenkin – traded him. And those 
are both guys who played games for them last season. The Leafs have a couple real standouts in 
their system. Easton Cowan, you might even cut it off at him. I would add Ben Danford to that 
conversation. But then underneath those guys, it’s really, really tight. Now, you could look 
at that as the Leafs having an empty cupboard. I look at that as it’s tight for competition. You 
have to try. You have to be ready. You have to be prepared. You have to fight and scrape every 
single day in junior, in college, in the pros, in the minors. And even if you’re called up and 
you don’t play, you have to be the most eager person in the building. No, the Leafs do not have 
that many high-end prospects, but they also don’t really have that many spots available either. All 
six defenseman that the Leafs used in the playoffs last year are signed for this year and next year. 
Plus, they have the likes of Henry Thrun who’s on an NHL deal, Marshall Rifai, Philippe Myers, 
who played a bunch last season, Dakota Mermis, Matt Benning, who’s still in the system and on an 
NHL deal. In net, Joseph Woll is on a contract, and it sounds like Anthony Stolarz is coming up 
on signing a contract. How are you going to get in then? You got to be like the third guy and 
then just wait your turn. Up front in the years to come, there are spots available, but there’s 
not many. And cracking the top six? Good luck. The Leafs organization is looking for guys who 
will grind and fight tooth and nail for a job now or later. So, who do we got? Let’s look at 
the two guys that I have in tier three. Easton Cowan. I really did think about putting him 
in two. He might prove to be better than a three, but right now I have him in tier three. There’s a 
chance this kid makes the team. There really is. Personally, it’s probably best for him to play 
against grown men in the pros with the Marlies and that wouldn’t be the worst thing because the 
Marlies have been a little scarce for uh, marquee rookies in recent years. He had 29 goals and 69 
points in 46 games in the OHL with the London Knights last year. Oh, okay. 13 goals and 39 
points in 17 OHL playoff games. He fell just short of 40 points in 17 OHL playoff games on route to 
an OHL championship. 96 career points in 60 career OHL games. Easton Cowan is a gamer. He’s not the 
biggest guy in the system. 6 foot tall, 185 lbs, but he is tenacious and obviously has the ability. 
Now, what makes things interesting for Cowan is there are jobs available upfront for the Leafs, 
but there are always injuries. Max Domi has been training with Auston Matthews and I thought was 
the easy solution for at very least opening night right winger with Matthews and Knies. Maccelli 
probably plays with Tavares and Nylander. There you go. Well, Domi is missing the first few skates 
of training camp because he tweaked something and we don’t want him trying to play through injury 
because he tried to do that last year and it was disastrous. But with Mitch Marner no longer in 
the organization, this team is already looking for guys to step up as playmakers. Max Domi is 
a great pure playmaker. Matias Maccelli, when he was at his best a couple years ago, is a great 
pure playmaker. But if you lose one of those guys, all of a sudden you’re looking a little bit. 
Not like Matthews and Tavares and Nylander are helpless. But again, the Leaf’s problem in recent 
years has been that they’re doing everything. If Domi can’t begin the season and you could put 
Cowan on a I mean, maybe not a top six role, but even if you put him on a line with a guy like, for 
example, Bobby McMann, that could be huge. More than likely, he starts the season with the 
Marlies, I do believe he’s going to play games for the Leafs this season. It’s just a question about 
how much. Also on tier three. God, I love this guy. I keep calling him a nail gun because he is 
the captain of your Oshawa Generals, Ben Danford. His highlights are bananas. He doesn’t light it 
up. He’s not a huge offensive player. He’s not going to score very many goals from the back end. 
He can put up some assists. He can play drive, but he’s going to block shots. He’s going to eat 
rubber for breakfast and he is going to truck you if you try to cut across the middle of the 
ice and you don’t skate with your head up. And when he trucks you and one of your teammates comes 
to stick up for you, he’s probably going to beat them up, too. And congratulations, now you just 
got your teammate beat up! In a perfect world, this guy would be in the AHL playing uh 
professionally, and I think that would be great for his development. He’s going to go back 
to the OHL and torture that place for a little longer. So, what we want to see there, obviously 
a continued development of his defensive game, but I want to see a little bit more offense. 
Danford’s going to play games for the Leafs, man. He is. I just don’t know when. I bet it’s 
sooner than you think. Now, maybe harsh. Those are the only guys I have in tier three. Tier 
four is where you get to feel really smart. When these guys show up in camp, maybe even 
play a preseason game, when they eventually make their NHL debut. You get to say, I remember 
them. And even better, I always knew they were going to make it. I want to start with a guy who 
played in Kingston of the OHL this past season, and that’s where the Leafs drafted him, Tyler 
Hopkins. 51 points in 67 games. 20 of those points were goals. He won gold with Canada at the World 
Under18s. Maybe he could do that again in the future, not at the under 18, you know, somewhere 
else. Here’s a quote of high praise from Leaf’s assistant general manager Hayley Wickenheiser.
“He stood out for me as well just because of his hockey sense. He made some really nice plays. 
Not an overly big kid, not an overly fast kid, but you notice him out there many times 
just by the ability to complete plays.” That’s uh from Mark Masters at TSN talking to 
Hayley Wickenheiser. I like that quote because to me it’s like the perfect review of a player in 
tier four. Is he big? Not really. Is he fast? Eh, but he’s, he’s good. He tries real hard. I’ll be 
keeping tabs on him in the OHL with the Kingston Frontenacs. Maybe I’ll even get to go see him 
play live this season. The Leafs system is sorely lacking on fulltime centers up front and hopefully 
Tyler Hopkins can fill that void. Up next, one of the more intriguing guys in the Leaf system that 
not nearly enough people are talking about – Noah Chadwick. Noah Chadwick is a left-handed 
defenseman out of the WHL from the Lethbridge Hurricanes. He should be making his full-time 
transition to the AHL this year. Not bad for the sixth rounder. He is 6’4, 203 pounds, BEEF. But in 
66 games, 53 points, 13 of them goals. Like I said earlier, the Leafs defensive depth right now is 
crazy. That’s okay because they don’t exactly need Noah Chadwick right now, but he should probably 
be getting some pretty decently simple assignments in the AHL playing with guys who have played NHL 
games. He’s going to be getting lots of experience behind those guys and as he’s on an NHL contract, 
if push really came to shove, he earned a spot, guys injured, whatever, whatever, he could play. 
He’s a former CHL Scholastic Player of the Year, Hockey IQ, Big Brain. Beef, and Brain. In terms 
of how he develops with the team for a big guy, the name of the game, skating, skating, skating. 
Now, Noah Chadwick is an underrated prospect in the Leaf system because I don’t 
expect you to know every WHL player, and I don’t expect you to pay full attention to 
everyone the Leafs draft in the sixth round. But the reaction to our next player last year 
showed some bias because our next tier four player, Tinus Luc Koblar, who the Leafs just 
picked in the second round. Tinus Luc Koblar, who I’m going to call TLK for the rest of this 
little segment, played for Leksand’s junior 20 team in Sweden last year. One thing we don’t 
trust enough about the Leaf system is if they pick a player who played in Sweden, because TLK is 
not from Sweden, he’s Norwegian, but he played in Sweden. If the Leafs pick a player out of Sweden, 
it’s probably going to work out. The Leaf’s main scout over in Sweden is a guy named Thommie 
Bergman, and he has been with the Leafs for over two decades and has had a ridiculous success rate, 
especially with like late round picks from Sweden. No, they’re not all guys who have had long NHL 
careers, but they’ve played. Anton Stralman, that was Thommie Bergman. Carl Gunnerson, 
that was Thommie Bergman. Trading them, not Thommie Bergman. Think of the success they’ve 
had. Alex Steen, even a guy like Andreas Johnsson, Pierre Engvall was a good pick for how late in the 
draft he was, and so was Andreas Johnsson. Rasmus Sandin, good pick. Even Pontus Holmberg, where was 
he picked? The sixth round, that’s a player. It was written in an article with Josh Khloe years 
ago that Thommie Bergman is the reason that the Leafs in 2014 when they had the option of drafting 
Nikolaj Ehlers or William Nylander, they chose William Nylander. This guy knows what he’s talking 
about. So when the Leafs use their first pick in a draft, which the second round pick was their first 
pick this year on a player who played in Sweden, I pay attention. TLK is one of two players on 
Leksand’s junior 20 team that have been drafted by an NHL team. The other guy on Lexans is a guy 
named Victor Johansson, who I’m going to mention later in this video because he was drafted by 
the Leafs as well, the year before. This is a team that the Leaf scouts and they’re two players 
that the Leafs like. 21 points in 43 games. Does that mean anything to you? It’s – Do you know 
much about the junior system of Leksands?! But he’s 6’3, a buck 80. So, room to grow and 
he plays mean. Once again, if he can work out, especially if he plays up the middle, that’ll be 
a huge boost for the Leaf system. And because he’s over in Sweden, it he’s not necessarily going to 
come over anytime soon. There’s no rush. Take your time. Since we talked about him, let’s talk about 
him. Victor Johansson, a defenseman who the Leafs drafted again out of Leksands. This defenseman is 
6’1 and when he was drafted, he was under 150 lbs. Now he’s listed at 165, which is obviously still 
pretty light, but it is well up and part of the reason the Leafs drafted him, despite his weight, 
is because he has older siblings who ended up weighing a lot more. Silly, but there’s a 
little bit of science that goes into this, even if it’s crude. He’s played a cup of coffee 
in Sweden’s big league. He’s mostly played in the juniors. 39 points in 47 games last season. He was 
top amongst all D on his team in scoring, fourth overall on his team in scoring and this year to 
start the season in Sweden, he’s played two games, has two goals. Now, we’ve talked about draft picks 
so far, but one thing that the Leafs have done, because they don’t have a ton of draft picks from 
previous years going into the future, they just don’t have a ton. One thing they’ve done if they 
started signing guys. Signing guys out of college, for example, and signing guys out of major junior, 
and we’re going to talk about some of those, too. One of the guys who they signed and has 
looked pretty good to start is Luke Haymes. Now, because he signed out of college, one of 
the benefits of signing a college player is they’re a little bit more of a refined 
product. Luke Haymes is 22 already. 6’1, 203 pounds. That’s a man. 12 goals in 18 points in 
22 games with Dartmouth in American College last year, but he got to play a cup of coffee, cup of 
coffee in the big time with the Toronto Marlies last season. It was pretty good. In the nine games 
that he played with the Marlies, he had two goals, four assists for six points. If he keeps up 
that pace, there’s a real chance he could play NHL games in the not too distant future.
But nine game sample size, it’s a big if. Some of the prospect nerds seemed pretty excited when 
he signed, got more excited when he showed promise to start with the Marlies. Let’s keep it going. 
Jacob Quillan, who is a guy who the Leafs signed of Quinnipiac. I think that’s how you pronounce 
it, but I’m really not sure. He played a full season with the Marlies last year. He did get one 
game with the Leafs. I think he got hurt. But in 67 games with the Marlies, he had 18 goals, 
19 assists for 37 points. As a 23-year-old, as a rookie in the A, that’s really not bad at 
all. He does have a bigger side. He does have a nastier side. And honestly, he’s got a decent 
chance to play games very early this season, maybe maybe even out of camp. Back to the WHL, 
Miroslav Holinka, who is a noted Allan Walsh client, and some of you are going to know about 
Miroslav Holinka because I did a video about him when he signed with the Leafs after getting 
drafted two drafts ago. He was drafted out of the Czech Republic and then he went over to the WHL 
last season. 45 points in 47 games. So just under a point a game player in his WHL rookie season. A 
right-handed shot and once again if he could work out as a full-time center. That would be killer 
for the Leafs. 6’2, 185. A little bit of room to grow. He played for Czechia at last year’s World 
Juniors. Four points in seven games. Got to think as a 20-year-old he’s going to end up at that 
tournament again, assuming he’s healthy. Watch for him there. He should be one of Czecha’s 
stars. And of course, if you want to see my full video on Miroslav Holinkka. Go check it out. 
It’s on this channel. The two remaining players for tier four that I have are Dennis Hildeby and 
Artur Akhtyamov. Both goalies. Dennis Hildeby just signed a three-year contract extension. It looks 
like he’s going to get an opportunity to be the Leaf’s third goalie here. The Leafs don’t have 
a fail safe like they have in recent years. Like a veteran third goalie who can step in if 
you need. Matt Murray. That’s who it’s been. Matt Murray. It’s all young guys back there. So if 
one of Stolarz or Woll gets hurt or both, you’re gonna have to look at a guy like Dennis Hildeby 
to be a guy like Artur Akhtyamov. You might even be calling up a guy like Vyacheslav Peksa at that 
point, begging on the waiver wire. Hildeby is 24 now. He was drafted a little older and he led all 
Marlies goalies in starts last season with 30. His 908 save percentage was a dip from the 913 he had 
the year before. But this guy wins games. In his two full seasons with the Toronto Marlies, his 
record is 37-20 and 11. So you got a really good chance of winning or at least picking up points 
with Hildeby in net. Now we did see Hilldeby in the NHL last season and eh he had a solid start 
or two in six games there, but a couple of them were tough. 878 save percentage in those six 
games. Somehow still picked up three wins though, so that’s pretty good. And then there’s Artur 
Akhtyamov who finally came over from Russia last season and had a ridiculous start for the 
Marlies. Nine straight wins, I believe it was to begin his North American career. You could do 
a lot worse than that. But knowing that, it’s somewhat concerning when you see that his record 
was 11-8 and 4 by the end of the season with a 901 save percentage. His first half was unreal. His 
second half, oof. I was a lot higher on him at the beginning of last season for obvious reasons 
and his KHL numbers were unreal. Hopefully, he could get back to that because the way he started 
his tenure, like this guy should be challenging Hildeby for the third goalie spot. Tier five, 
we got to go a little bit more rapid fire. Sam McHugh with the Brantford Bulldogs of the OHL. 
Just under a goal a game after the OHL trade deadline. He has scored more goals than assists 
with three different OHL teams over the past two full seasons. This guy likes to score. Borja 
Valis, a player who the Leafs just signed out of the WHL. I did a whole video on him. The guy is a 
bulldozer. Had a big offensive season last year in the WHL for the Prince George Cougars.
Cade Webber. He played on the Marlies last year. He is still a prospect. The Leafs got 
the Carolina Hurricanes draft pick from the Carolina Hurricanes. Does not score. Does not put 
up points. He was Lane Hutson’s defense partner in college. Does not score. Does not put up points. 
6’7 212 beef. Harry Nansi is a player who I’m pretty interested in. The Leafs just drafted him 
out of the OHL from the Owen sound attack. 6’3 180lb forward. Room to grow. Low offense, but he’s 
played over a 100 OHL games as an 18-year-old. That’s impressive in itself. I want to see him 
take a big step forward offensively this season while still maintaining his responsible play. 
William Bell is a guy who I think could be a fan favorite in a few years. really tenacious forward 
that the Leafs just drafted out of the American program. 6’3″, 220 lbs at 18 years old is insane. 
And I’m going to cut it off at William Villeneuve who is a 23-year-old defenseman. He’s been in the 
Leaf system for a while. He’s with the Marlies. He is right-handed and put up over 40 points in the 
A last year. That’s not nothing. My main question with him is, is his defensive game NHL ready? And 
with so many guys on NHL deals with tenure, with experience ahead of him, how do you get a look? 
And is this guy trade bait? Because I’m sorry, those numbers have to raise some eyebrows. There 
is just not time to mention every single other player in the Leaf system. Like Ryan Tverberg, 
there’s a player who I really do believe in, like I need to see more out of him. He needs to 
have a big offensive season. Uh Blake Smith is a huge defenseman who they just signed out of the 
OHL and I made a video about him. Let’s see how he transitions to the pro game. Right? And the last 
thing I will say is even though I don’t usually talk about players who are not on NHL deals or 
are not NHL draft picks of the Leafs. So basically not guys who are assigned to AHL deals.
There’s one player I want to make an exception for because I think the Leafs really like this 
guy. Landon Sim. They just signed him to an AHL deal with the Toronto Marlies. And they should 
like this guy. He’s actually a 2022 draft pick of the St. Louis Blues. And who was with the St. 
Louis Blues in 2022? Craig Berube. Landon Sims’ dad you might remember as a longtime New York 
Islander and he played for a few other teams as well. John Sim played uh between four and 
500 games. And you might have noticed Landon Sim in the prospect tournament as a guy who wants 
it because he is not the biggest guy. He is 5’11, buck 85. That is bang average, maybe. And he 
got in two different scraps. After his 21 point draft year with the St. Louis Blues, I think the 
Blues wanted him to take offensively and it just never happened. 21 points, 21 points, 29 in 39 
games. That’s not bad. you’re a little concerned about the 39 games. Past season with the London 
Knights, he went off 53 points in 54 games, but 30 of those points were goals. And in 17 playoff 
games with the London Knights, he had 15 points. 12 of them were goals. 12 goals in 17 games. I 
know it’s junior. I know he was an older player. That is hard to do. The Leafs have proven in the 
past that they’re not afraid to sign guys who are on AHL contracts with the Marlies to NHL deals. 
Keep your eye on Landon Sim. But for now, that’s all I got. Let me know what you think of the Leaf 
system, what you think of the state of it, what you think they can do to get better, and who are 
some guys where I was just utterly disrespectful for not adding them to the list? It’s jump ball 
and that’s an exciting thing. For now, that is it for this one. Thank you very much for watching. 
Click like if you like this video. Click subscribe if you really liked it. Tell your friends – hey, 
if you’re in the St. Catherine’s area. We’re doing a live show there at the Course & Clubhouse two 
weekends from now. I would love to see you there.

Come see us LIVE at The Course & The Clubhouse: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/thecourseandtheclubhouse/1836083

Steve Dangle breaks down the entirety of the 2025 Toronto Maple Leafs prospect pool and divides them into different sections on his famous PROSPECT PYRAMID!

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