Top 25 Under 25 History - Part I

In the beginning there was an idea. Not one invented by PPP, but one taken up in 2012 to rank the younger players on the Leafs. I wasn't there, but it's always intrigued me to imagine what it must have been like to take that approach to a team that was not heading to the playoffs. Maybe it was anxiety brought on by watching Phil Kessel approach 25 without enjoying the team success many had hoped for while he piled on the goals heading towards his career high of 37.

Maybe it was simply that the last prospect drafted with a first-round pick was Tyler Biggs and everyone wanted a real inquiry into the prospect pool. In January of 2012, the first PPP Top 25 Under 25 was held mid-season.

2012

The beginning.

The just drafted first-round "prospect" came in at 17th. Maybe the entire purpose was the burning (and very well-founded) desire to rank Stuart Percy, just drafted a few spots below Biggs, higher. Eleven is a more appropriate spot for a player to debut right after the draft.

You can revisit the posts about each player, and the easiest way to do that is to start here:

Top 25 Under 25 - PPP Leafs (Page 21)

PPP LeafsClark Aitken

Luca Caputi, at the bottom of the first list, is only 35 now. He'd been traded just before the post marking his placing went live. He only played one more season in North America and two in Sweden before injuries forced him out. He has been the head coach of the Kingston Frontenacs for three years now, after six prior years coaching in the OHL.

In between Kessel and Caputi are a lot of former NHL players and at least three current ones.

In the summer of 2012, the list moved to its normal placing just after the draft. If you want to focus on that list, you can start here:

Top 25 Under 25 - PPP Leafs (Page 20)

PPP LeafsClark Aitken

The ranking process has always been essentially the same, a bunch of people make their lists from 1 to 25 and the votes are tabulated. A few criteria have changed over the years. The exact date for the age cutoff has moved around a little – it began as July 1 but shifted to August for awhile. The tabulation method has changed as different people ran the event. You'll note the earliest list ranked more than 25 names but tabulated a final result at 25 and the 2012 lists used a version of the reverse order tabulation we use now.

We awarded 30 points for a #1 ranking, 29 points for a #2 rankings, all the way down to 1 point for a #30 ranking and no points for players who weren't ranked. The Top 25 list was compiled by the aggregate score for each player, from highest to lowest. We used the following to settle ties;

- total number of rankings (a player with 4 rankings was given priority over a player with 3 rankings)
- if still tied, the highest individual ranking

In the summer of 2012, Toronto had just drafted Morgan Rielly fifth overall, and there he is at eight on the list. You can see that PPP people had little faith in Leafs drafting. It is very funny now with our hindsight to see him behind Cody Franson. Reilly proved himself very quickly and dominate the list over the next few years.

2013-2015

The rise of Rielly.

In 2013, Toronto had just drafted Frederik Gauthier at 21st overall and Carter Verhaeghe at 82nd. Gauthier's placement on this list is pretty generous, considering the lessons of Biggs; however, Nazem Kadri is only just getting his due, and Morgan Rielly has almost convinced people.

You can find 2013, 2014, or 2015 articles in the archive.

You can see more faith and soaring hopes at draft time by 2014, when the freshly acquired William Nylander, taken at eighth overall lands at fourth on the list and Rielly finally hits the number one spot he likely had deserved for a couple of years. Note the rapid rise of Andreas Johnson (as he was then known) who was only drafted in the year prior in the seventh round.

By 2015, the top of the list was much easier to make again, more like the very first list, with the addition of Mitch Marner drafted fourth overall. He makes it all the way to fifth on his first entry – a truly amazing achievement given T25 history of pessimism, and unlike some other examples, those are real players ahead of him.

The reverse tabulation was exactly what we use today in 2015, and only 25 players were ranked by each voter.

Over these years you see the understanding of Connor Brown and Frederik Gauthier take hold while other very young players are moving into the AHL, and debuting high on the ranking list, challenging rostered NHLers. You can also clearly see that no one did see Carter Verhaeghe coming.

In 2015, the discussion was would he go to the ECHL or not. And he did, just not for the Leafs.

PPP’s Top 25 Under 25: #20 Carter Verhaeghe

Carter Verheaghe falls 10 spots after the Leafs stock up on young players

PPP LeafsAdam Selvig

While we were still seriously discussing how Frederik Gauthier was blocking Verhaeghe getting a spot on the Marlies, something was about to happen that would blow away every prior T25 list like leaves on the wind. A bona fide elite prospect was coming, the greatest since... well you decide, but he's the greatest player the Leafs have ever drafted.

Tomorrow in Part II, how we rated the modern era of the Leafs prospects.