Clark Aitken

In yesterday's FTB, SkinnyFish linked to an article published on The Hocky Writers blog, where the writer provided himself with a little challenge; create the best hockey team possible under the salary cap, using a few house rules (you can find the original article here. It was a

There is no surprise as Phil Kessel tops our ranking of the Maple Leafs' top 25 prospects.

Jake Gardiner makes his debut after arriving from Anaheim as the Leafs' 2nd highest ranked prospect.

When I finally got a chance to sit down and write about James Reimer (which I apologize for it taking so long), two questions kept coming up. The first; is #3 too high of a ranking for Reimer? While his statistics have been an improvement over the level of goaltending

Four seasons into Luke Schenn's career, what do we know? We know that he probably provides more offensive upside than Leaf fans expected when he was drafted 5th overall in 2008. Without the benefit of virtually any time on the powerplay, Schenn has incrementally improved from 14 to

It's very hard to classify a team as the "loser" in a trade that eventually wins them the Stanley Cup. I mean, the goal of all 30 NHL teams each year is to hoist the Cup at the end of the season. Teams that are truly

My earliest memories of the Maple Leafs are from the Wendel Clark/Doug Gilmour/Pat Burns era. So that's just shy of 20 years of watching the Leafs, a passion that has grown every day. So the following statement is not said lightly. In almost 20 years of

Even though this is our first instalment of the Top 25 Under 25 series, I feel pretty confident in saying that doing rankings during the middle of the season can be a tough task. Already during this countdown, we've had one member of the team be traded out

We've reached a point in the Countdown where background information on the player isn't required at the same level as before. The top 8 should all be pretty familiar to everyone reading these final profiles. The players that are left are all players that have been

As we close in on the conclusion to our list of the Top 25 Maple Leafs under 26 years old, now seems like a good time to get the input of you, the PPP community. Tomorrow the series will resume with #8, and will hopefully continue on without any more

At the start of the Top 25 Under 25 series, I dug up a quote from Assistant GM Dave Nonis. The quote, from this past September, was talking about the necessity, as an organization, to always have prospects in the system, constantly challenging for jobs at the NHL level. Nowhere

Almost two years ago, Brian Burke announced two trades that came as an absolute shock to everyone around the league, and took a major step forward in transforming the Toronto Maple Leafs. In one deal with Anaheim, he shipped much maligned goaltender Vesa Toskala and forward Jason Blake out of

Brian Burke's stated goal for building his version of the Maple Leafs has been to start from the net out. Now questions abound about his success (or lack thereof) of solidifying the goaltending position, but it can't be ignored that Burke has added several goaltenders with

During Brian Burke's tenure as General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, he has been adamant in adding a player out of the power forward mould to his top six; someone with size, skill and scoring prowess, and if they happen to be a truculent sort, so be

One thing that any die-hard hockey fan who is self-aware of their own fandom will tell you that 99 times out of 100 they can't help but overvalue their own teams' prospects. It's not meant to be a slight, but it happens; you have a

via 2.bp.blogspot.com In several interviews and media appearances this season, Leafs General Manager Brian Burke has expressed his desire to add size and toughness to the forwards. By that statement Burke isn't talking about the Colton Orrs of the world; Burke's decision to

When I was younger I played junior hockey for a couple of seasons. Not at the OHL level, mind you, but a lower level. Junior C, mostly. My first season in junior hockey I split my time between two teams in different levels. While I enojoyed getting additional playing time

There's a point in the development of all prospects where the team has to assess whether the player is ready to take the next step forward and move up to a league where he will face a greater challenge. Sometimes the move is forced; a player finishes eligibility

Tyler Biggs has an uphill battle to earn the trust of the Maple Leafs faithful. At the 2011 Entry Draft, Brian Burke swapped the 30th pick in the draft (acquired from Boston in the Tomas Kaberle trade) and their own 2nd round pick (39th) to move up to 22nd in

Recent history of the Toronto Maple Leafs goaltending has made one topic very common in our conversations; goaltending and save percentage. At this point, we have pretty well-defined what level of goaltending is required to be considered a competent NHL goaltender, how to correct for fluctuations over time to understand

Based on the reputation certain teams in the NHL have for scouting and drafting talent late in the draft, if you had to steal a European forward in a later round out from under one team, you'd probably want to be poaching the Detroit Red Wings. In the

From the 1994 Draft (when the league expanded to 26 teams) until the 2005 Draft (of which players are just turning 25), just 22.5% of all players selected in the 7th round have managed to play at least one game in the NHL. 12.5% of all players selected

via hogtownhockey.com One of the challenges with this exercise is weighing current accomplishments against future potential. When you have a collection of young players between the ages of 18 and 24, some still developing in amateur leagues, others transitioning from one professional league to another, it makes comparing apples

Becoming a professional hockey player takes tremendous amounts of skill, hard work, and luck. The first two are pretty obvious as to why they're important. But luck plays a huge factor. Playing for one team instead of another where you might be further down the depth chart. Having

As the youngest member of the Toronto Marlies... (checks Twitter feed). Damnit. As the youngest member of the Reading Royals of the ECHL, Kenny Ryan has spent much of the season watching and learning how to become a professional hockey player. There's probably a good debate to be