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Leafs Top 40 Prospects - #24

September 15, 2021, 12:26 PM ET [457 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)



Kivihalme was born in Minnesota while his father played Division III NCAA hockey, played high school hockey in the States and with Fargo in the USHL before being drafted in the fifth-round pick (140th overall) by the Nashville Predators in 2013.

The 26-year-old Finn played three seasons at Colorado College, but was not signed by the Predators and headed to the Finnish SM-Liiga. In two seasons with Karpat, the 6’0”, 180 lb. blueliner won a league championship as a rookie and scored 30 points (9 goals and 21 assists) and nine points (4 goals, 5 assists) in 16 playoff games last season.

The Leafs added Kivihalme on a one-year entry-level contract in May 2019 because of his excellent skating ability and high hockey IQ to improve their organizational depth on the blueline. With injuries to Morgan Rielly and Jake Muzzin in 2020, the Leafs were forced to elevate youngsters Timothy Liljegren and Rasmus Sandin to the NHL, giving farmhands such as Kristians Rubins and Kivihalme more playing time.



In his rookie campaign, Kivihalme scored 18 points (4 goals, 14 assists) in 55 games with the AHL Marlies and showed enough promise and potential for growth that the Leafs re-signed him to a two-year, $1.45 million two-way deal in July. In a shortened 2021 campaign, Kivihalme’s offense improved with 11 points (6 goals, 5 assists) in 20 games.

Because of his age and pro experience, Kivihalme might be called upon if the Leafs have injuries on the left side of the blueline, but if Morgan Rielly, Jake Muzzin, Travis Dermott and Rasmus Sandin stay relatively healthy, it is likely that he will be a important depth player on the Marlies defense.

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