#11 - Kerby Rychel

One of three new entrants in this batch of our Top 25, Kerby Rychel settles in at 11.

Rychel was difficult to rank for many of us. His record includes exceptional scoring in junior hockey, followed by a first round draft selection, and then poor performance for the Blue Jackets. He scored only one goal in 17 games of this season’s AHL Calder Cup Playoff.

There was allegedly much conflict with the Blue Jackets front office, including his playing time and line mates.

Buckeye State Hockey has a good article from February on Rychel. It goes into his possession numbers a bit, and pins most of the blame on the fact that Rychel spent the bulk of his ice time on a line with Gregory Campbell, who does not have a great impact on puck possession.

Rychel played 3 games (totaling about 18 minutes of ice time) after that article was posted, so those numbers may have changed a bit, but it looks like Rychel is capable of decent possession as long as he isn’t tied to an anchor like Campbell.

Posted by m piedlourde

Gregory Campbell is one of the worst players in the NHL. As in astronomically horrid. I think Colton Orr might be a more capable player.

Posted by KatyaKnappe

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JP Nikota Species 1967 Steven Burtch Katya Knappe Fulemin 50 Mission Cap Chris H
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Rychel does pick up points for having the number one hockey cat on Twitter.

#12 - Andreas Johnson

Johnson spent most of this season playing for the SHL’s championship winning Frolunda team.

Our voters were split on the value of that experience to the Leafs, with some holding back until he replicates his high scoring in play here in North America.

Unfortunately we were robbed of the chance to see him in action here this past playoff season. Johnson joined the Marlies on May 9th, and then one game later was concussed with a vicious elbow to the head.

Scott Wheeler 67 Sound Birky Arvind Elseldo Gunnar Carlsson Achariya
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JP Nikota Species 1967 Steven Burtch Katya Knappe Fulemin 50 Mission Cap Chris H
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If you would like to see Johnson in action, here’s a beautiful goal. Do all Swedish forwards do this drop pass at the blue line thing? Nylander loves that move too.

WHERE’S KERBY RYCHEL?!

Posted by elseldo

Elseldo is silly, but Katya had some real concerns about his seemingly great play.

I expect him to be one of the top players on the Marlies this year, and I’m really looking forward to seeing him. I don’t think he’s a half step from the NHL, however. I’m not convinced he’s even probable for the NHL. I think it’s much more likely that he’ll be the star of the Copenhagen Crowns some day given the level of players he did not outplay on his own team, Joel Lundqvist, Spencer Abbott, etc., I think he either has to take a huge step towards a more complete game, or that’s that.

Posted by KatyaKnappe

Yikes! Spencer Abbott was ranked at 23 in our inaugural Top 25 Under 25 in 2012, and then not ranked in later editions. He was traded at the deadline in 2015 for T.J. Brennan.

#13 - Dmytro Timashov

Timashov is a 2015 5th round draft pick. While born in the Ukraine, the 5’10 winger plays for Sweden internationally and impressed at the World Juniors.

In the regular season he plays in the QMJHL. Traded from Quebec to Shawinigan this year, he earned a very impressive 24 goals and 63 assists in 67 games.

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JP Nikota Species 1967 Steven Burtch Katya Knappe Fulemin 50 Mission Cap Chris H
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Those spectacular points totals bumped him up our rankings. Did he perhaps wind up too high?

I actually think I ranked Timashov a little too high. If I could redo it, I’d bump him down a spot to 15. He’s an excellent prospect, and the value of picking him as late as we did is incredible. But as I tend to weigh pro experience much higher than junior, I’d like to see his great (but not otherworldly) numbers translate to the AHL before moving him up to the upper echelon of this list.

Posted by Arvind.

This seemed to be a sentiment shared with the community.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Timashov. And he’s got some great puck handling skills, nice passer, sees the game well. I’m not convinced he’s got game breaking speed though, and his shot needs work. Last year, I said that I think he has 2nd line potential, but – even if he develops well – is still likely a notch below a Nylander and co.

And also, no, he doesn’t have pro games under his belt yet, and I think those do count for something. Physically proving you can handle the game at the higher level, for instance.

Those things lead me to drop him a bit in the rankings.

On the plus side though, he just DOES seem capable of raising his game to the level of those around him. So I could easily seeing him dropping in on the wing of a skilled Center and being a great fit. He looks good playing alongside good players…

I guess this year we’ll see which way he breaks, more toward top-line potential, or….. The other place.

Florida.

Posted by not norm ullman

#14 - Frank Corrado

Poor Frankie, always the scratch. It got a bit weird last season when, after being claimed by the Leafs on waivers from the Canucks, Frankie Corrado was scratched for several straight weeks of games.

What was going on with this otherwise seemingly nice found wallet? Did he have a moderate injury to rehab? Did he accidentally run over Mike Babcock’s dog?

Eventually he did get to play and put up unimpressive numbers on the last place Leafs, which may explain the low value of his new contract.

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JP Nikota Species 1967 Steven Burtch Katya Knappe Fulemin 50 Mission Cap Chris H
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Will Corrado even make it to the Leafs this season?

I’m curious what they wind up doing with the roster.

They have a big log jam on their roster, at forward and at defense. IIRC none of the 8 defensemen on the roster (Gardiner, Rielly, Zaitsev, Marincin, Carrick, Corrado, Polak, Hunwick) are waiver eligible though?

I’m actually looking forward to whatever madness they think up to manage the roster spots

Posted by There is no brigstew, only Z!

Of course, maybe the cash flow and cap space will get him in the lineup.

They can effectively put Polak down to the AHL with almost zero risk of anyone claiming him. Also the $900k cap relief they’ll get for waiving him is more then Corrado will make, so they’ll actually see a cap savings by waiving Polak instead.

Posted by Kronzor

Corrado will have an old team mate joining him this season, at least, and hopefully only, for training camp.

What’s hilarious is that Corrado and Brandon Prust had very similar careers with the Canucks and Comets, except that Corrado plays defense and is 10 years younger.

Posted by Achariya

#15 - Zach Hyman

Hyman made a great impression in his first season of pro-hockey, even getting called up to the Leafs where he scored 4 goals in 16 games.

But someone pointed out that we have seen players like that before.

Reviews various threads about Matt Frattin from years ago……grabs popcorn……

Posted by Alspicer

I really hope not. I liked Hyman’s play a lot, and I see glimpses of JvR's game in his play. That's high praise from me! Hyman's first NHL goal was that fun kind of greasy, puck slipping everywhere, in the crease battle. The same kind at which JvR excels.

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JP Nikota Species 1967 Steven Burtch Katya Knappe Fulemin 50 Mission Cap Chris H
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So where and when does Hyman end up with the Leafs? We had a big debate about whether or not a prospect ranked at 15 today is the same as one ranked at 15 in the past, when the talent pool was shallow.

Here is every player that was ranked from 11 to 25 in the first two editions of PPP’s T25U25, with the number of career NHL games they have played as of summer 2016.

0 GP: Juraj Mikus, Josh Nicholls, Sondre Olden, Mark Owuya, Tyler Biggs, Brad Ross, Greg Scott, Matt Finn

1 GP: Spencer Abbott

3 GP: Marcel Mueller, Nicolas Deschamps

19 GP: Greg McKegg,

28 GP: Josh Leivo

31 GP: Luca Caputi

35 GP: Petter Granberg

39 GP: Jerry D’amigo

54 GP: Carter Ashton

87 GP: Korbinian Holzer

288 GP: Joe Colborne

That’s it. You have two guys who have played the equivalent of a full season, and they’re a 7D and a gigantic centre who has broken 30 points one time. (Not to mention Colborne was usually ranked in the top ten when we had him; he dropped only as far as 11th in a down year.) After that? Leivo and Granberg might still have NHL careers. And…yeah. It doesn’t really get better in recent years; I didn’t list those guys, since they still have more time to make it. But the only 11-25 guy I would get really excited about from editions three and four is Connor Brown, or maybe Gauthier if you like.

Posted by Acting the Fulemin

That's our Top 25 from #15 to #11

Check back tomorrow for the second round of our community vote. As of now the top five to be carried over to the #11-20 ranking vote are Dermott, Bracco, Nielsen, Grundstrom, and Korshkov. Remember you can still go back and change your vote up or down today!

Next week we reach the top 10 and I’ll be kicking things off Monday with the player whose ranking rose the most from 2015. See you then!

Which of these five do you think is best?

Kerby Rychel113
Andreas Johnson109
Dmytro Timashov198
Frank Corrado16
Zach Hyman91
Maple Leafs ProspectsTop 25 Under 25