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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)
The Leafs had a trio of selections in the seventh round of the 2020 Draft and unlike most years, where they opted to select European players because they can retain their rights for longer than two years, they chose developmental projects going to the US college route.
With their selcction at 189th overall, Toronto selected defenseman John Fusco. The 20-year-old played three years of high school/prep hockey at Dexter(Mass) and was bound for Harvard, but after the Ivy League announced the shutdown of winter sports earlier this month, the blueliner found a home playing for Sioux City in the USHL and for the Musketeers, Fusco had 12 points (2 goals, 10 assists) in 20 games
Fusco has great bloodlines, as his father Mark played two seasons in the NHL with Hartford and in the 1984 Winter Olympics (Sarajevo) with Team USA and uncle Scott played in the 1984 and 1988 Winter Olympics (Calgary).
Former Leafs Director of Amateur Scouting John Lilley indicated after the selection last October that the club liked Fusco’s competitive edge and his leadership abilities and the Leafs hope that the unusual circumstances caused by the pandemic will not hinder the defenseman’s development when he debuts with the Crimson this fall.
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