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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)
The Leafs normally go to Europe in the later rounds because of the longer development window and have had good luck in drafting the likes of Andreas Johnsson, Pierre Engvall and Carl Gunnarsson. In his second draft, GM Kyle Dubas and his scouting staff followed this model and selected Finnish defenseman Kalle Loponen in the seventh round (204th overall).
The 20-year-old is a product of the Karpat junior system and played internationally for Finland in the Under-18’s and 30 games in the second-level Mestis league in his draft year, but then opted in 2019 to head to North America to play regularly in the OHL for the Sudbury Wolves instead of fighting for playing time in the SM-Liiga.
Loponen has decent offensive tools and scored 24 points (6 goals, 18 assists) in 56 games with the Wolves, but with the OHL shut down he returned to Finland this season to play in junior and one game for Karpat.
Finnish U20 league defenceman of the year Kalle Loponen finished the regular season with 11 goals and 22 assists in 36 games.#LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/c6kd7MoMGG
— Nick Richard (@_NickRichard) April 1, 2021
In the U20-SM-sarja, Loponen was named the league’s best blueliner after scoring 33 points (11 goals, 22 assists) in 36 games, but this season has moved from Karpat to Kouvilan KooKoo to play regularly in the top-level SM-Liiga.
According to HockeyProspect.com, Loponen is “not afraid to engage physically along the boards in addition to having good timing with his hits, but “his skating and footwork are average…..not very fluid and doesn’t generate a lot of speed from his strides.…
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Lot’s of â¤ï¸ for the 💙ðŸ¤
— Norman James (@IamNormanJames) April 26, 2021
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