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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)
The Maple Leafs have long-range plans for some of their European prospects and winger Vladislav Kara is someone that will have to show something in the next year or so to not be considered a mistake. The 6’2…, 187 lb winger was selected in the fourth round (124th overall) in the 2017 Draft after scoring 11 goals in 31 games and four playoff goals as an 18-year-old in the junior-level MHL.
A product of the Kazan system, Kara played in the second-level pro VHL and 11 KHL games in 2017-18 and mostly in a depth role for Ak-Bars in 2018-19, scoring only five points (3 goals, 2 assists) in 41 games. In 2020, the left winger averaged nearly a point-per-game in the VHL, but did not get much more opportunity to play quality minutes in the KHL.
Now 23, Kara has played in the KHL for parts of four seasons without making any significant splash or impression. The Leafs retain his rights indefinitely with no transfer agreement in place, but unless he has a breakthrough year this season, there will likely be little interest from Toronto in bringing the winger over to play in the American Hockey League.
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