2019 Top 25 Under 25: Thirteen prospects go unanimously unranked

In the Toronto Maple Leafs development system, the unranked prospects are represented by two separate, yet equally important groups. The professional scouts and the general managers of the Leafs who draft and trade for prospects, and the Pension Plan Puppets staff who attempt to destroy the hockey careers of those prospects.

These are their stories.

The Unranked

Dakota Joshua

The player named after one of two possible States wasn’t technically unranked, but he would have been. The Maple Leafs traded their rights to Joshua to the Blues for “future considerations” on July 11.

What comes back from the Blues in the future could be an AHL-only player.

Maple Leafs trade the rights to Dakota Joshua to the Blues

Eemeli Rasanen

The towering 6’7 defenceman was ranked at 19 on our list last season. This season, the largest of Mark Hunter’s large adult sons went unranked by the entire panel. After signing a PTO and briefly playing with the Marlies in March, he decided to leave and re-sign with Jokerit, which is the Finnish outpost of the KHL.

The Maple Leafs will retain his rights.

Prior to his 2 year window expiring he signed a deal to play in the KHL which then allowed the Leafs to flag him as a defected player, resulting in the club retaining his rights so long as he remains in the KHL.
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) May 13, 2019

There is no reason to assume the Leafs have given up on the possibility of Rasanen playing here for either the Leafs or the Marlies in the future. They will have scouts keep an eye on him and have a spot open at Marlies practices should he want to come back and try again. Judging by our staff ranking, we think that is an unlikely outcome.

Martins Dzierkals

Poor Martins Dzierkals. The 2015 third round draft pick has the dubious distinction of not being ranked in our Top 25 by anyone, ever. For four years in a row now he has sat at the bottom of the list without any member of a panel placing him anywhere in the Top 25.

You haven’t always agreed with us that this should be the case.

Is PPP wrong about Martins Dzierkals?

The comments are a great read in this post, especially the epic argument about Matt Finn.

The Rest

All of the other prospects who wound up with no votes this season are either new to the Leafs organisation this season, or were not ranked last year either. I don’t have much to say about these players, mostly because I haven’t seen any of them play directly. An exception is Ben Harpur, whom I have seen at Senators and B-Senators games. He was rather unremarkable in both.

Here are the eleven other prospects that we did not rank:

Aaron Luchuk
Position: Center
Drafted: Undrafted, signed an ELC with Ottawa in December 2017
Team last season: Belleville Senators and Brampton Beast

Ben Harpur
Position: Defence
Drafted: 2013, fourth round
Team last season: Ewwwww

Both Harpur and Luchuk arrived in the deal with the Senators that sent Nikita Zaitsev and Connor Brown off for Cody Ceci.

Updated with contract dollars: Nikita Zaitsev and Connor Brown for Cody Ceci is official

Fabrice Herzog
Position: Winger
Drafted: 2013, fifth round
Team last season: ZSC Lions, NLA
This is the last year the Duke of Freshness is eligible for our Top 25 Under 25 list. He turns 25 in December. He used to play with Auston Matthews on the Lions. Maybe they will reunite again someday for some Tortilla Soup.

Vladimir Bobylev
Position: Winger
Drafted: 2015, fifth round
Team last season: Toros Neftekamsk, VHL

Nikolai Chebykin
Position: Winger
Drafted: 2016, seventh round
Team last season: Toros Neftekamsk, VHL
(Yes, he plays on the same team as Vladimir Bobylev.)

JD Greenway
Position: Defence
Drafted: 2016, third round
Team last season: Dubuque Fighting Saints, USHL
Greenway left the University of Wisconsin after two seasons to play in the USHL last season. He reportedly will return to the NCAA and play for the University of Maine next season.

Ryan O’Connell
Position: Defence
Drafted: 2017, seventh round
Team last season: Ohio State, NCAA

Ryan O'Connell was selected with the Leafs’ last pick of the 2017 draft

Vladislav Kara
Position: Forward
Drafted: 2017, fourth round
Team last season: Ak Bars Kazan, KHL

Vladislav Kara is the Leafs’ pick at 124

Filip Kral
Position: Defence
Drafted: 2018, fifth round
Team last season: Spokane Chiefs, WHL