The Toronto Maple Leafs head into the 2025-26 NHL season with one of the weaker prospect pools in the NHL, which isn’t ideal, however it is expected when you’re talking about a team that’s made the playoffs for nine years in a row.
Our friends over at our sister site, Daily Faceoff, have been doing a breakdown of each team’s prospect pool, and our prospect guru Steven Ellis, who’s quarterbacking the series, listed size as the Maple Leafs’ biggest strength from a prospect standpoint. He subsequently listed the team’s overall prospect depth as their biggest weakness.
The Maple Leafs have drafted a number of bigger prospects in the past couple of years. Ben Danford and Noah Chadwick, standing at 6-foot-1 and 6-foot-4, are the team’s two best defensive prospects, both drafted within the past two seasons and both under Brad Treliving’s regime. They followed a similar approach in the 2025 NHL Draft, with Tinus-Luc Koblar, William Belle, and Harry Nansi all standing at 6-foot-3 or taller. It’s important to distinguish that this doesn’t mean the Leafs look at a prospect’s height and judge their prospects that way, but rather tend to look for players who have a combination of skill and size instead of just taking the most skilled player available, regardless of size.
On the team’s strength in the size department, Ellis had this to say about the Maple Leafs’ prospect pool.
“Toronto has drafted BIG in the past few years and it might pay off. Ben Danford, for example, loves to get in the way of shots and isn’t afraid of any physical bout. Noah Chadwick and Cade Webber mean business on the back end, too. Recent draft picks Tinus-Luc Koblar, Harry Nansi, Sam McCue and William Belle all love to throw the body and could be potential fourth-line options. Even Dennis Hildeby – a 6-foot-7 goaltender – towers over the competition. Toronto has wanted to get stronger in recent years. Mission accomplished.” -Steven Ellis
On the other side of the coin, here’s what he had to say about their biggest weakness.
“Outside of Cowan, who has top-six potential, the Leafs don’t have a ton of high-end forward depth to work with. They’ve drafted players who can handle a certain style, mostly in a bottom-six role. But beyond that, the Leafs don’t have a ton of offensive weapons. That’s not necessarily an issue, and it’s the norm for teams expecting to go deep in the playoffs. But that does limit their trade options, though.” -Steven Ellis
The Maple Leafs further depleted their farm system at the most recent trade deadline, parting ways with Fraser Minten and Nikita Grebenkin in trades for Brandon Carlo and Scott Laughton, respectively, but that’s the price you pay when you’re a contender.
Easton Cowan, Ben Danford, and Dennis Hildeby rounded out Ellis’ top-3 prospects.
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