2023 T25U25 Week 4 Summary

Sign Up to PPP Today

You have to be a member to comment at PPP. Membership is free and requires only an email address.

Become a Member

Already have an account? Sign in

---

The bulk of the T25 is over, and the only thing left is the final four – no cores in sight.

Official Vote

9 Roni Hirvonen

2023 Top 25 Under 25: Roni Hirvonen is 9th

Hirvonen is a prospect that’s difficult to project because of where and how he’s played. He’s been in Finland’s pro league before Toronto even drafted him, as well as being part of Team Finland in various junior tournaments for years. But who is he as a player by now?

PPP LeafsBrian S

At 10.3 in weighted average ranking to Easton Cowan's 10.5, these two players were another virtual tie.

8 Fraser Minten

2023 Top 25 Under 25: Fraser Minten is 8th

Fraser Minten completed his third season with the Kamloops Blazers, finishing fourth in team scoring with 67 points in 57 games.

PPP LeafsHardev

One full placing higher at 9.3, Fraser Minten landed over Hirvonen on the strength of some high votes.

7 Pontus Holmberg

2023 Top 25 Under 25: Pontus Holmberg is 7th

One of the more debated areas of our annual rankings comes when we look at players who have gotten into a handful of NHL games, but haven’t yet stuck in a full time role. Pontus Holmberg certainly fits this type of player after his AHL and NHL rookie season.

PPP LeafsBrian S

With some real NHL results to show for his last year on the T25, Holmberg got 6.5 in average ranking, the single biggest jump at any point on the official vote. He marks a very clear line for people between the maybes and the for-sures.

6 Topi Niemelä

2023 Top 25 Under 25: Topi Niemelä is 6th

Topi Niemelä is one of the few defensive prospects in Toronto’s system, and clearly the best at this point. He’ll start this year in the AHL likely as a top pair defensemen. How much do you buy into his NHL future?

PPP LeafsBrian S

The only player in the top seven who hasn't played in the NHL, Niemelä has made believers out of most of the voters with one year in the AHL. His ranking of 5.8 is a significant cut above Holmberg.

5 Conor Timmins

2023 Top 25 Under 25: Conor Timmins is 5th

As the second oldest player eligible for this year’s T25U25, Timmins is in a weird spot to consider in our rankings. The Maple Leafs are familiar with highly regarded defense prospects struggling to find their footing in the NHL. So where does that leave Timmins?

PPP LeafsBrian S

At 5.6 in ranking, you should consider Timmins and Niemelä tied. The difference is likely my 10th place for Niemelä as the least-convinced voter.

Community Vote

The community vote last week ended with Roni Hirvonen, and now we can see that he and Easton Cowan were swapped on this list from their spots on the official vote. Most people agree about their place on the list.

9 Easton Cowan

At a weighted average of 10.87, Cowan is almost one full point higher than Hirvonen, and is only a few hundredths lower than where the official vote had him.

8 Fraser Minten

More agreement! Minten comes in at the same place as on the official vote with an average ranking of 10.15 in a very strong consensus vote.

7 Conor Timmins

Ranking a little lower than on the official list, Timmins has a ranking of 8.26, marking a jump up of almost two placings over Minten. That distinction was clear from the voters. Timmins has the first really short right tail vote which we'll see in the top few players where most people voted him at or better than his ultimate placing.

6 Topi Niemelä

Virtually tied on the official list Niemelä and Timmins are swapped around here, and at 7.46, there's a slightly bigger gap.

5 Pontus Holmberg

The community were more convinced by Holmberg's brief NHL stint than the official voters, marking the major difference in this section of the vote. At 7.29, Holmberg is barely above Niemelä. Note the spread between his vote and the official list's number 5. The Community vote has a lot more ground to cover to get to the end, and it comes in a surprising place.

Note the y-axis, Holmberg got a much tighter vote cluster.

The final four are the same four on both lists – not an extremely surprising result, but the order is not the same. We'll discover the full picture next weekend.

---

PPP Runs on Your Support

If you enjoy the T25U25 every year, and want to see it continue, please consider becomming a paid subscriber. We want to keep all our content open to all users, but to become a sustainable site, we need more support from paid members.

Subscribe Now