Top 25 Under 25

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?

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?

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.

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

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?

The third week of this year's top 25 brings us into the range of players that ordinary people may actually have heard of.

Say hello to Easton Cowan, the Leafs first round pick from the 2023 NHL Draft. And as is inevitably the case, he's not simply allowed to be a prospect, but a foil for arguments about the NHL team today. Let's begin his T25U25 profile with what

Sitting just outside the top 10 is a 24 year old forward who played his first professional season last year.

Grebyonkin is in a quite interesting place as a prospect. There are some reasons to think highly of him, but also reasons to be skeptical. I am here to tell you why you should be getting all aboard the Greb hype train.

Last year's third round pick, Nicholas Moldenhauer, had a strong final season in the USHL for the Chicago Steel ahead of his move to the NCAA with the University of Michigan. Moldenhauer could fool you as a Yank with all those red, white, and blue words, but the truth is he's from Mississauga.

NHL, or AAA+? This is the season where we will know.

The second week of voting shows a lot of agreement about who should be at the bottom of this list.

Sarnia is the oft-overlooked little brother, and Ty Voit is a prospect that seems to fit that role too. He's unusual for an OHL player in that he's American, and that means he has to really wow them back in Colorado Springs to make the national team.

On a team with so few defensemen prospects in their pipeline, Villeneuve is arguably their second best hope of being an NHLer. This year, he will have a chance to step up into a second pair role on the Marlies and get even closer to the NHL as a real possibility.

Ryan Tverberg has undergone a huge rise in status as a prospect since he was drafted, and his ranking history continues to reflect this improvement. As he enters his first full professional season, will that improvement be enough to make him a future contributor at the NHL level?

Noah Chadwick makes his debut at 18th after being drafted by Toronto this summer. He's a big lanky defenseman with questions about his skating but some interesting skill that hints at his potential.

Semyon Der-Arguchintsev makes our list within the top-20, but is the first player trending away from the Leafs than towards it.

A reprise of the first week of the T25 along with the Community Vote Unranked and bottom six choices. Come see how you all voted.

Hudson Malinoski makes his Top 25 Under 25 debut at 20th. A fifth round pick in the 2023 draft, he has some interesting tools and some shiny new toy syndrome among the voters.

Last year, Dmitri Ovchinnikov was ranked 15th on our T25U25 list. This year he dropped six spots despite finally getting a full time KHL role. Let's talk about what's likely behind the drop.

Lisowsky and Saskatoon put up the points for an eye-catching season in the WHL. What are his next steps as a leader on his team and looking ahead towards pro hockey?

Overlooked in multiple drafts prior, he was a good use of a late-round pick, but the difference in early career between him and Woll is marked. Woll, part of the UNTDP and a member of Team USA since the U17 team in 2015, was on everyone's radar as a prospect, and Hildeby never was.

Next on our countdown for this year's Top 25 Under 25 series is the Russian goalie Artur Akhtyamov. He had great numbers in the VHL last year, but does that mean much?

Welcome to the countdown for this year's Top 25 Under 25 Maple Leafs prospects. The list opens with the 25th ranked player, Mikko Kokkonen.

Happy T25 season to everyone, today you get to meet the voters for the official list. We had 10 people voting this year – enough to sand off some of the rough edges when calculating an average, but not too many that it becomes just the Community Vote writ small.