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Leafs Top 40 Prospects - #15

October 8, 2021, 5:16 PM ET [97 Comments]
Mike Augello
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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)
#27 - Axel Rindell – D (Jukurit – Finland SM-Liiga)
#26 - Noel Hoefenmayer – D (Toronto - AHL)
#25 - Alex Steeves – C (Notre Dame – NCAA)
#24 - Teemu Kivihalme - D (Toronto - AHL)
#23 - Kristians Rubins - D (Toronto - AHL / Frederikshavn - Denmark)
#22 - Ian Scott – G (Toronto - AHL)
#21 – Veeti Miettinen – RW (St. Cloud St. – NCAA)

#20 – Artur Akhtyamov – G (Ak Bars Kazan – MHL/VHL/KHL)
#19 – Filip Kral - D (Kometa Brno – Czech, Toronto - AHL)
#18 - Joseph Duszak - D (Toronto - AHL)
#17 – Mac Hollowell - D (Toronto – AHL / TuTo Turku – Finland Mestis)
#16 – Semyon Der-Argushintsev - C (Torpedo – KHL, Toronto - AHL)

#15 – Pavel Gogolev – LW (Vasby IK – Swe-1, Toronto – AHL)

The Maple Leafs under Kyle Dubas have been more proactive at giving developmental projects time and opportunity. Toronto have added undrafted free agents from Europe, US colleges and the CHL, which has resulted in bringing in players like Ilya Mikheyev, Trevor Moore and Mason Marchment.



Toronto is hoping that they found another possible future prospect in winger Pavel Gogolev. The 21-year-old Russian is a childhood friend of Leafs draftee Semyon Der-Argushintsev and played three seasons with him and 2019 second rounder Nick Robertson with the Peterborough Petes.

The Moscow native scored 45 goals with the OHL’s Guelph Storm in 2020 and after playing in Sweden prior to the American Hockey League returning to action, the left-winger scored 12 points (six goals, six assists) in 13 games for the Toronto Marlies.

Even though the AHL was severely depleted because of the NHL’s carrying a taxi squad, the Leafs saw signs of potential in a rookie who scored at nearly a point-per-game pace and signed him to a three-year entry level deal.



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