Toronto Maple Leafs: Top 10 Prospect Rankings Before World Juniors

With the World Junior Championships set to begin on December 26th, we take a look at the Toronto Maple Leafs top 10 prospects.

The World Junior Championships is the biggest stage for prospects under the age of 20 years old, and for Toronto Maple Leafs fans it’s a chance to watch some of their top prospects in action.

Although the Leafs don’t have an overwhelming amount of prospects in this tournament, we decided take a look at the organizations top 10 prospects and update our rankings.

Here’s a look at our top 10 Maple Leafs prospects:

1) Jeremy Bracco – RW Kitchener Rangers (OHL):

Taken 61st overall by the Maple Leafs in the 2015 NHL Draft, Bracco was universally seen as a steal by pundits — myself included — for the Maple Leafs at the tail end of the second round. What the Freeport, NY native lacks in size, he more than makes up for with elite level skating and skill.

Standing at 5-foot-9, Bracco isn’t going to be confused with Milan Lucic, but in my opinion he could be confused with a player like Mitch Marner, Johnny Gaudreau, or to a lesser extent Cam Atkinson. Last season was an impressive one for Bracco and despite my wishes of seeing him compete in the bigger and stronger NCAA, he left Boston College for the Kitchener Rangers and proved that the OHL was a great decision as he put up better than a point per game for the Rangers last season.

Going into this season, Leafs management knew that this was going to be a huge developmental season for Bracco, as he returned to a talented Kitchener team who has its sights set on a playoff run. Thus far, that looks like a good bet with Kitchener slotted in as the sixth seed. But for Bracco, whose personal goals were to be a dominant player in the OHL and to secure a spot on Team USA for the World Juniors in Toronto, he hasn’t disappointed.

The owner of a 26 game point streak to start the season, Bracco has a miraculous 51 points in 27 games played and is third in the OHL in points as well as playing a hand in accounting for 42 percent of his team’s goals! He has also jumped seven spots since last season’s rankings and is firmly entrenched as the Leafs No. 1 prospect and is a top 20 prospect in the entire league and should be with the Leafs for the next couple years as a top six winger.

   Team (League)        GP        Goals     Assists     Points     PPG     Plus/Minus     PIM

Kitchener Rangers     27           17           34             51         1.89             +15                 4