It’s that time again! Time for me to write far too many words about the prospects that interest me the most for Toronto’s picks in this year’s draft. I’ve been doing some form of these since the 2020 pandemic draft, and my process has changed a lot since then. The last few years I’ve settled on a rough structure for watching, reading about, organizing names, and picking players to profile that I will follow again this year.
If you want to view past profiles to get an idea for how I do things, or to review all the watch lists I wrote over this season, you can check all the articles under the “NHL Draft” tag:
NHL Draft – PPP Leafs
Coverage of the NHL Entry Draft and draft prospects.
My Process
A lot of time is spent in the research part of this process. In the past it was around 10 hours a week, on average, during the hockey season. This past season was… difficult. Monetary issues, work issues, personal/sleep issues gave me some wild swings for how much time I had to watch and follow prospects. Regardless, as usual the bulk of work I put into these profiles is already done by now, when all the various seasons, playoffs, and tournaments are done.
Once again, I am starting my actual writing for these profiles well ahead of time. And I’ve had the list of players I will be writing about since April. This means I am finalizing my list of articles and players to write about before most leagues are done their playoffs, and before people release their final draft rankings. The first profile is already done, and it will be published on Monday June 1st. After that, I will have a different article on the draft coming out on every day of the month right up to the draft itself on June 28th. There will be 21 full player profiles, and then five other lists of mini-profiles for overagers, goalies, and late round swings that interest me.
I will basically be writing several individual profiles on the top players, and most interesting ones, that I think could be available when Toronto has their picks come up. To make a reasonable guess of who will be available in Toronto’s range, I am relying on rankings from people like TSN (sigh… miss you forever Bobfather), Cam Robinson, or Corey Pronman – all three of whom build consensus rankings based on feedback from NHL scouts/teams. They are, in theory, the most accurate for the actual draft day results. The problem is, their very final rankings don’t come out until just before the draft and as I said… I can’t wait that long if I’m writing these ahead of time. So I’m making reasonable guesses based on their most recent rankings as of me setting my final list, and then some assumptions based on what players have late hype (or the opposite).
I’ll typically mix in some players that will likely be gone before Toronto picks, but who I really like and can see some small chance they fall to us. I do that for every round Toronto has picks. After that, I will pick from the players that are in a reasonable range to be available.
Selecting Players
The way I selected players, outside of deciding who may be in range of Toronto’s various picks, is to look for certain traits in players that matches the things the team and their scouts like. This was a lot easier for me during the Wes Clark and Kyle Dubas years since I had time to see from their picks and interviews what they looked for.
But now, the Leafs have changed general managers twice since Dubas was still here. There’s apparently supposed to be a whole new process for the team to follow in how it uses analytics to help inform decisions instead of ignoring it, and I assume that also applies to the draft. There’s at least a new head scout that has a couple of drafts under his belt here by now, but I also know that the GM typically gives direction to their scouts a lot so I expect things to change compared to the Treliving drafts.
The time between the Leafs officially hiring their new GM and/or Hockey Ops figure(s) and the draft is small. I’ll already have my list of players to profile settled before then. There’s also rumours that Pelley wants the new hires to help overhaul staff from top to bottom to bring in that new culture or whatever terms you want to parrot from the talking heads. Suffice to say, more than any other year I have no damn idea what to expect from them at the draft. So, more than any other year, I’m going with the players I just like.
What I Like
I’ll add this section just to talk about what I like in players, or what catches my eye and makes me like certain prospects.
From forwards, I like guys who can play at a high pace. This doesn’t mean they have to skate fast, it means they have to play fast. Skating is part of it, but so too is decision making and positioning. Speed of mental processing, anticipating, and moving the puck are just as important for being able to play at the highest, most competitive level as pure mobility. This is something I probably the most for both forwards and defensemen.
Specifically for forwards, I want them to be able to drive play. Being able to transport the puck with it on their stick or by passing it is important to me. I’m also typically a big fan of the “little things” kings. Guys who are good along the boards, good without the puck, get the puck to the middle of the ice, protect the puck well, all those things. I do like skill as well, and I always love me a guy who can absolutely rip it. But to me, execution in live play is more important than pure skill. I don’t care about a skill or tool that is inconsistent at actually being able to impact the play.
For defense, I’ve said this often enough I’ll keep it short. The skills I value in a defenseman start in their own end and become less important (to me) as you move into the offensive zone. I value stopping zone entries, retrieving dump ins, breaking up cycles and getting the puck out of their own end with control. I then value being able to move the puck through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone. Once in the offensive zone, sure I’ll like a guy that can help score goals but I mostly want puck movers and offense supporters rather than being finishers with a big shot.
Then there are the goalies, and I’m not even going to pretend I have any idea about them or what kinds of goalie prospects that Toronto may like. So I’m just making one list of the various guys I think could be interesting regardless of where they’re ranked. Spoiler: there aren’t that many that I know anything about, and I’ll have to be doing special research to know enough to make my list about them.
Profile Schedule
For shits and giggles, here’s the schedule for the profiles that will be coming out starting on the first of June, conveniently also a Monday. At this point, I hope I will have most of them done. I may make some changes to the order or a couple of the players after this is published if some final rankings or strong rumours come out that would change my guess as to whether or not someone would be available or not. But for now, here’s the list:
- Mon June 1st – Gavin McKenna (LW)
- Tue June 2nd – Ivar Stenberg (LW)
- Wed June 3rd – Caleb Malhotra (C)
- Thu June 4th – Chase Reid (RD)
- Fri June 5th – Malte Gustafsson (LD)
- Sat June 6th – Ryder Cali (C)
- Sun June 7th – Mathis Preston (RW)
- Mon June 8th – Jaxon Cover (LW)
- Tue June 9th – Adam Andersson (C)
- Wed June 10th – Alexander Bilecki (LD)
- Thu June 11th – Måns Gudmundsson (RD)
- Fri June 12th – Jonas Lagerberg Hoen (RW)
- Sat June 13th – Olivers Murnieks (C)
- Sun June 14th – Rudolfs Berzkalns (C)
- Mon June 15th – Alofa Tunoa Ta’amu (LD)
- Tue June 16th – Giorgos Pantelas (RD)
- Wed June 17th – Wiggo Sörensson (C)
- Thu June 18th – Alan Shaikhlislamov (LW)
- Fri June 19th – Adam Valentini (LW)
- Sat June 20th – Yelisei Ryabykin (LD)
- Sun June 21st – Brek Liske (RD)
- Mon June 22nd – Late Round Forwards
- Tue June 23rd – Late Round Defensemen
- Wed June 24th – Re-Entry Forwards
- Thu June 25th – Re-Entry Defensemen
- Fri June 26th – Goalies
Thanks for reading!
I put a lot of work into my prospect articles here, both for the draft and Toronto’s prospects. I do it as a fun hobby for me, and I’d probably do it in some capacity even if PPP completely ceased to exist. But if you like reading my work, some support would go a long way! I pay for a few streaming services (CHL, NCAA, USHL, the occasional TSN options for international tournaments that are broadcast) to be able to reliably watch these prospects in good quality streams. I also pay for some prospect-specific resources, such as tracking data and scouting reports from outlets like Elite Prospects, Future Considerations, McKeen’s Hockey, The Athletic, and more.
Being able to get paid for this helps me dedicate more time and resources to it, rather than to second/third jobs. And whatever money I make here, a lot of I reinvest back into my prospect work through in those streaming and scouting services. Like I said, I’d be doing whatever I can afford for this anyway, so any financial help I get through this is greatly appreciated!
