Maple Leafs Prospect Report: The Finals Are Here

Almost two weeks ago, I wrote a Prospect Report update on all of Toronto's prospects still active in their league's playoffs. At that point, five were still alive and starting their conference finals.

Maple Leafs Prospect Report: The Semi Finals Begin

It was a perfect round of playoff hockey for Toronto’s prospects that were still active, and now they’ve all reached some tough semi-final match ups.

PPP LeafsBrian S

Well, the finals are here and four of those five prospects moved on to the finals in their league. So let's get to it.

Alexander Plesovskikh

Spartak had their hardest series of the playoff so far, but still managed a relatively easy 4-2 series win. Plesovskikh wasn't as productive in this series as he was in others, with 4 points in those six games, but he has seen his ice time increase from an average of 15:49 to 16:16. He's been mostly used on their second line, but that line has the two top producing players in the MHL playoffs. His 10 points in 14 playoff games are good for fourth on his team – only behind three 20 year olds who are two years older who, as I said, lead the league – and good for 15th in the league.

In the MHL finals, Spartak will definitely be facing their toughest match of the whole playoffs. SKA-1946 St. Petersberg finished with the second best record in the league – only two points back of Spartak – but have a legitimate argument for being the better team. Where Spartak had a goofy +98 goal differential, SKA-1946 had 36 more goals for and 12 fewer goals against for an even goofier +142 goal differential. They have the player with the most points in the regular season, but Spartak has two players well above the rest in playoff scoring. SKA-1946 had the better goaltending in the regular season, but Spartak has had better goaltending so far in the playoffs. I may argue that Spartak's playoff stats look better because they had easier competition, but we'll see how those trends hold now that they're facing each other.

Here's their schedule for the finals:

Game 1 – Monday May 12th @ 11:00 am EST

Game 2 – Saturday May 14th @ 11:00 am EST

Game 3 – Tuesday May 16th @ 12:00 pm EST

Game 4 – Thursday May 18th @ 10:00 am EST

Game 5 – Not scheduled yet

Easton Cowan

Honestly, what's left to say about Cowan and the London Knights at this point? They're both truly ridiculous. Facing the team with the second best record in the OHL, London completely dismantled them in a 4-0 series sweep by a combined score of 18-6. They have yet to lose a single game in these playoffs so far, and Cowan leads the way with 8 goals and 27 points in 12 games. He's tied for third in the playoffs behind a trio of Oshawa players, but because he's only played in 12 games he has the highest points per game pace at 2.25 where the others are below 2.00.

At this point, Cowan is on another 22 game point streak going back to the regular season, where he's put up 17 goals and 51 points. Most of those are primary points as well, and he's pitched in his usual 3 short handed goals. It may have felt like an underwhelming season for Cowan for 90% of it, but whether it was intentional or not he sure seems to have saved everything for a hell of a final 10%.

What makes this playoff run for Cowan and London more impressive is they've been without one of their top players – Denver Barkey was among the playoff leaders in points but was injured in a nasty looking leg/ankle injury in game one of the series against Kitchener, and yet they just kept on demolishing everything in their sight. While I don't think Oshawa is a bad team (more on them below), I do expect it to probably be another pretty quick win for London in their repeat as OHL champions.

Here's their schedule for the finals:

Game 1 – Thursday May 8th @ 7:00 pm EST

Game 2 – Saturday May 10th @ 7:00 pm EST

Game 3 – Monday May 12th @ 7:00 pm EST

Game 4 – Tuesday May 13th @ 7:00 pm EST

Game 5 – Thursday May 15th @ 7:00 pm EST

Game 6 – Saturday May 17th @ 7:00 pm EST

Game 7 – Monday May 19th @ 12:00 pm EST

Ben Danford

Danford and Oshawa have had a longer path to the OHL finals, but they also breezed to a 4-0 sweep to clinch a rematch of last year's OHL final against London. But where London stomped all over Oshawa last year, this time I can see it being at least a bit of a tougher matchup for a few reasons.

1. They were very hurt last year, with their best players (Ritchie, Sennecke) missing the whole finals or playing hurt.
2. They now have Colby Barlow, who is 2nd in playoff scoring.
3. They've had two other players take big leaps in their development, including defenseman Luca Marrelli who leads the OHL in playoff points, 2025 draft eligible prospect Owen Griffin who has 15 goals and 26 points in 16 games, and of course our own Ben Danford who is also fully healthy and playing very strong two-way defense.

While Danford's 5 points aren't exactly eye-popping, I would make the argument that his stellar defense has been a key to freeing up the offense of so many players. He's been Marrelli's partner off and on these playoffs, providing a defensive anchor. He's shown improved puck movement to not only shut down the other team's offense, but move the puck up the ice towards offense. I would have liked to see some more offensive threat coming from him this year, but honestly he's become so good at basically every other area of the game a defenseman can be good at so I'm not complaining.

Danford's schedule is the same as Cowan's above. The winner will not only become OHL champions, but will also clinch their spot at the Memorial Cup later this month.

Nathan Mayes

Speaking of defensemen having a nice breakout, Nathan Mayes has been riding a high along with Spokane on this playoff run. They also swept their playoff series against Portland, with Mayes pitching in four points. At this point, Mayes has 2 goals and 11 points in just 15 playoff games, basically doubling his point and shot rate from the regular season. He also has a better +/- in 15 playoff games than he had in 56 regular season games, if that's your thing.

The improvements Mayes has made are along the same lines as Danford, just not at his same level. He's showing better overall defense, better puck movement out and up the ice, and better involvement in the offense. Despite having a lot more points, I wouldn't say that he is twice as good an offensive defenseman as Danford so don't go overcooking your jets on him just yet. His increased point production is in part a product of being on an offensive juggernaut in these playoffs. But the fact that he's getting the points is a sign that he isn't just settling for moving the puck along. He is making good decisions with the puck, passing to the right people, making good shots from the point that are getting to the net and creating rebounds or deflections, jumping off the point at good times, and so on.

So let's talk about their matchup in the WHL finals: Medicine Hat. They had the second best record in the WHL, with the league's best offense and 3rd best defense. They scored more goals and allowed fewer than Spokane, while Spokane had the better powerplay and penalty kill.

The thing is, Spokane is a much different team now than they were for most of the season. In the playoffs, Spokane have scored 20 more goals... but they've also allowed 24 more. And Medicine Hat have also maintained an absurd 37.5% success rate on the powerplay, with a league best penalty kill success rate in the playoffs. Spokane is also very strong in those areas, for what it's worth, but not nearly as good. What Spokane has going for them is they take a lot fewer penalties, in fact Medicine Hat s the most heavily penalized team while playing in the fewest games. Spokane will need to capitalize on that and win the special teams battle to stay in it.

In the end, this WHL final will be between two incredible teams and includes the league's absolutely top stars. When Spokane traded for the league's top offensive producer, Andrew Cristall, it sent their offense into the stratosphere. He leads the WHL playoffs in goals (20) by six, and in points (37) points by one ahead of teammate Berkly Catton. But right behind both of them is uber prospect Gavin McKenna, who has 35 points in fewer games played and is on the longest active point streak in the entire CHL. There's also a chance that they could get back two other injured stars who were first round picks: Andrew Basha and Cayden Lindstrom, both of whom have missed the entire playoffs so far. I am actually more excited to watch this finals matchup just for pure, neutral hockey entertainment than I am the OHL finals between two of Toronto's top prospects.

Here's their finals schedule:

Game 1 – Friday May 9th @ 9:00 pm EST

Game 2 – Sunday May 11th @ 9:00 pm EST

Game 3 – Tuesday May 13th @ 10:00 pm EST

Game 4 – Wednesday May 14th @ 10:00 pm EST

Game 5 – Friday May 16th @ 10:00 pm EST

Game 6 – Sunday May 18th @ 9:00 pm EST

Game 7 – Monday May 19th @ 9:00 pm EST

Noah Chadwick

I do need to give mention to Noah Chadwick, whose team (Lethbridge) were victimized by the aforementioned Medicine Hat juggernaut in a 4-0 sweep. Chadwick finished in a tie for most goals by a defenseman with 7, and was tied for 6th in total points with 14. Despite having the league's best defense, they just couldn't contain the league's best offense. They had leads in at least two of the games, but couldn't hold either of them.

Next for Chadwick will likely be the beginning of his professional hockey career. He's already signed to an ELC with Toronto, and doesn't really have anything left to prove in junior. He finishes his career with back to back 10+ goal, 50+ point seasons, and became one of the league's best overall defensemen. I still have some questions about how well his game will work in the pros without improving his skating more, but at 6'4" he'll have a lot more grace than others of average size. The biggest thing will be cleaning up his footwork so he isn't stumbling, tripping or just slowing down as he pivots directions, and shifts between forward and backwards skating.

See you with the Marlies next year, Noah!

Thanks for reading!

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