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If you set out to name a winner, you are setting out to name the losers as well. But for the Leafs prospects, they've already won by being drafted – that in an of itself is an unlikely future for any child who takes up hockey. It pays to remember that in ranking the Leafs younger players and prospects, we're dealing in a rarified set of elite players. Most of the time, a player who doesn't make the Top 25 ends up as a top echelon AHLer, or is similarly capable in a European Pro league.
Just like the NHL draft sorts on minute differences between very good players, this exercise deals in tiny fractional differences that nonetheless mean the difference in how high the player's pro career can really reach.
The Unranked
Semyon Kizimov
The second oldest player on the eligibility list did not get any votes. He is the last of the clutch of draftees taken from Russian leagues in the 2016-2018 drafts. They've hung around eligible for the T25 because their rights don't expire.
I was a little tempted to rank Kizimov, though. He is a regularly rostered KHL player, and before the KHL was emptied of all but a few handfuls of foreign players, he was a borderline VHL/KHL player. That likely makes him a better player than some of the names that are about to get mentioned in this post, but also some of the very late-round draft picks that get ranked because there is still uncertainty about their ultimate peak value.
John Fusco
Before there were the two names below, there was John Fusco. Fusco is an American defender taken in the seventh round and, at 23, about to play his fourth year in the NCAA. He is likely an ECHL-level player if he goes pro after college. The Leafs will almost certainly let his rights expire.
Matthew Lahey
Taken in the seventh round this summer, Matthew Lahey got no votes, and he is an unknown right now. Will he end up at Fusco's level or something more? If it's more, it's not likely a lot more, and that's the entire basis for his lack of ranking. He's a whole season away from NCAA play, as he's going to the USHL first.
Nathan Mayes
Taken in the seventh round this summer 25 places after Lahey, Mayes is the second verse shooting with the opposite hand, but otherwise just as unknown. He plays in the WHL, and is about to start his second full season. By this time next year, we might have a firmer opinion on Mayes.
Honourable Mentions
Seven players got some votes, just not enough to crack the top 25. To show you how close these players came, I'll use the weighted average ranking. This ranking takes into account no votes, and weights them as rank 26, essentially. It's not giving much away to tell you that the player who hit 25th on the list, who will be revealed this week, has a ranking of 23.64.
Michael Koster
Koster is the lowest ranked of this group with a weighted average of 25.57. Ranking Koster is controversial, because his rights expire this month. He only made the eligibility list at all because there's a few weeks left where he is in the system. He got three votes, one each of 23, 24 and 25.
I ranked him because I like to watch him play, and he's a fun mostly offensive defender. He's certainly not making the NHL, and while that might put him off the top 25 for some voters, for me, he's still better than some others are likely to be.
He just played his fourth year at the University of Minnesota – as the co-captain – and he announced in May he is returning for a fifth season.
Sam McCue
Just draft in June in the seventh round, McCue, a winger, is only five months younger than Easton Cowan, a player we're very sure about. McCue also plays in the OHL, and will play his third full year there this season with Owen Sound.
His average ranking is 25.36, and he received four votes at 25 and one at 21.
Joe Miller
I ranked Joe Miller this year, likely too low. I realized during our discussions last year that I'd been overlooking him, and I think a lot of people do. Miller got one ranking at 25th, three at 24th and one at 21st for an average of 25.14.
He is the top scorer for Harvard. Tops in goals as well. And he's a centre and he is also only 21. He turns 22 this fall, one month before Matt Knies. And sure, with Knies, we see a player at another level, but Miller seems like he will be better than some of the older prospects toiling away in the AHL.
The interesting thing about him this past season, is that he led the team with the identical points line he got down the lineup the year before when the team was loaded up with talent. He is who he is, it would appear, a decent, but unexciting centre. He is playing for Harvard again, on a team not expected to challenge for the Frozen Four. He's worth keeping a bit of an eye on, though.
Wyatt Schingoethe
Schingoethe is 23, a centre, and just played his third NCAA year. He had four points in 24 games. I know I said I don't care about points, but there is a threshold with forwards that you can't dip under. Ryan Reaves, when he was 23, was already in the AHL and had 11 points in 76 games. I think that beats Schingoethe.
He has a weighted average of 25.07 and received one ranking of 18 and one of 21.
Veeti Miettinen
Like Koster, Miettinen's rights expire soon, and that likely kept him from getting a lot of votes. He has risen and fallen over the years on the waves of shooting percentage, but his NCAA scoring level is up there consistently enough to show he is a viable forward. He got two votes, one of 22 and one at 17 and that gave him a weighted average of 25.07, a tie with Schingoethe. Miettinen is moving to the Liiga this coming season.
Alexander Plesovskikh
Plesovskikh is the Maple Leafs' youngest prospect. He was just drafted at spot 152, one after Miroslav Holinka. He came decently close to making the cut with a weighted average of 24.5. He got three votes at 25, three at 24, one at 22 and one at 18.
He just turned 18 a few days ago, and is set to try to hold a roster spot in the VHL this year. I ranked him 18th, and I'm wondering hard if I underrated him.
Braeden Kressler
Kressler is the last "Honourable", and he came really close and should likely be considered in the tier of low-ranked players along with Plesovskikh. His weighted average is 23.93, barely below the 25th ranked player. He received one vote at 19th, 20th, and 21st and two at 22nd, one at 24th and one at 25th.
Kressler, under an NHL contract, is joining the Marlies this season after four years in the OHL, which alone puts him up on everyone else on this post save perhaps Kizimov and Miettinen.
That's the short list of those who didn't quite make it. Tomorrow is the exciting reveal of number 25.
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