Prospect Info: Leafs Board Prospect Ranking #9

[Stringer Bell]

I'm still the only Spencer Abbott vote?
When this guy leads the Marlies in scoring this season ..
maybe people will perk up a bit about the guy.
He's a steal.

But ... i'm happy that D'amigo is leading right now if it can't be Spencer Abbott.

At the end of the Marlies season he will be 26. A 26 year old player at 5'8"...I'm not writing him off but I don't think he belongs in our top 10 prospects list either.

 

[firstemperor]

Kenny Ryan

 

[Green Snow Storm]

Brad Ross

 

[HeroNtF]

Toninato, ashton, blacker


Going potential on toninato, ashton and blacker are closer to reaching show, d'amigo afterwards but has less potential.

 

[Bernier the Boats]

Ashton should run away with this...

 

[Dangles McGavin]

Amazing how much Ashton has fallen out of favour with the fanbase

Was he ever really in favour?

I was never a big fan; I never expected much and still don't. I consider D'Amigo a much better prospect. Ashton's a lot more physical but that's about it (IMO).

 

[AlienWorkShop]

Amazing how much Ashton has fallen out of favour with the fanbase

I think it was a combination of:
a) Assuming Keith Aulie was held in any high regard at all and thus worth a blue chip prospect
b) Being blinded by his "1st round pick" status, despite him being a 29th overall pick that, if I remember right, was considered a reach
c) 19 goals with Norfolk when we acquired him was nothing to sneeze at, but perhaps a fluke (15.1 shooting % with Norfolk vs. 10.9% with the Marlies since)

I think he's still generally on track for a 3rd-4th line crasher role in the next couple years, but for the purpose of these rankings, people tend to prefer (going by HF terminology) 7.0C/6.5C prospects to 6.0B/5.5A prospects.

I voted D'Amigo here as he's very close to being an NHL-ready bottom 6 guy, but it's also tempting to throw your vote at a prospect that could really breakout like Toninato or Cameranesi.

 

[ChrisCall]

Whatever the eventual order, i like that this list could go as much as 15 deep on players who have a reasonable likelihood to find some sort of role in the NHL.

 

[My Sweet Shadow]

A lot of good options; Blacker, Ashton, D'Amigo, Nilsson, MacWilliam, McKegg

I think they all have a very good shot at cracking the NHL before too long, even if none of them have particularly high ceilings.

I'm going to go with D'Amigo. He should be competing for a 3rd line spot in camp if this is the roster we end up going with (plus the RFAs) and he's got the most offensive skill of that group.

Toninato and Cameranesi are dark horses; extremely talented and exceeding most expectations. I'd like to see if Cameranesi can repeat in his sophomore year and how well Toninato does as a freshman before I rank them too highly though.

 

[holden57]

Voted Blacker... but wow do we have a weak prospect pool.

 

[My Sweet Shadow]

Voted Blacker... but wow do we have a weak prospect pool.

I wouldn't call it weak. Yes, we're lacking a lot of high-end offensive skill other than Rielly (thanks to the graduation of Kadri and Gardiner), but it's an extremely deep pool, particularly on defense. There's likely no 1st line forward gems in there, but there's a lot of likely 2nd/3rd line forwards and top 4 defenseman candidates in there.

It's been the strategy of Burke/Nonis over the last few years to acquire all-around prospects with strong characters over boom-bust prospects and it's begun to show in our prospect pool.