Toronto Maple Leafs: The Franchise's 5 Most Underrated Prospects

After years of acting like their minor league system was nothing more than a place to reach for a player or two to use as trade bait, the Toronto Maple Leafs found themselves as a perennial bottom-feeder when it came to ranking each team's prospect pool.

Once the salary cap took hold and purchasing the services of highly sought-after free agents at will was a thing of the past, teams had to look within to find dynamic players in order to build a competitive team.

This is one of the primary reasons that the Maple Leafs have continued to find themselves on the outside of the playoff picture, looking in.

However, today Toronto has one of the premier farm systems in the NHL; one that is only going to get stronger with the addition of two more picks in the first 35 selections at the upcoming NHL entry draft.

With Toronto now having so many talented prospects, some prospects may be overlooked, or may not receive the credit they seem to deserve.

Here are Toronto's five most underrated prospects.

Spencer Abbot

Spencer Abbot being on this list is simply a byproduct of him being so new to Toronto.

After signing in March of this year, Spencer Abbot became the second Hobey Baker Award (awarded to the NCAA's best player) finalist to sign with Toronto in recent years (Matt Frattin being the other).

The native of Hamilton, Ontario may only be 5'9" and 170 pounds, but the kid has heart. Dating back to his days playing for the Hamilton Red Wings of the OPJHL, Abbot has improved rapidly at each level.   

During his last four seasons with the University of Maine, Abbot gradually improved his point totals from 16 points in 38 games in his freshman campaign to 62 points in 39 games as a senior in 2011-2012.

While many expect Abbot to be a bottom-six type forward, don't be surprised if Abbot's willingness to learn and consistent improvements end up providing the Leafs with more than they expected when they signed him.

Brad Ross

If this list were to assign rankings, Brad Ross would certainly be one of the two players in the running for the top spot.

Dating back to 2010, before that year's entry draft, Brad Ross has been pegged as a checking-line agitator type who can chip in a few points here and there.

Over his four years of junior hockey playing for the Portland Winterhawks, however, Ross has shown he has more of an offensive touch than people may realize.

Heck, he was taken 43rd overall in the 2010 draft, yet has shown much more promise and progress than many players taken ahead of him.

Similar to Abbot, Ross has been a player who's increased his production each year that he's played for Portland, bringing his point tallies from 26 points in his rookie season to 82 this season.

He's also accumulated over 160 penalty minutes in each of the last three seasons, showing he hasn't necessarily lost his physical edge, but seeing as they've steadily decreased, it may be an indication that he's starting to understand what situations require more discipline.

There shouldn't be any reason to believe that with a year or two of seasoning at the AHL level, Brad Ross couldn't develop into a Dustin Brown-type player (that's not to say he'll be another Dustin Brown, just that he may end up as a top-six forward with skill and toughness).

Nicolas Deschamps

Nicolas Deschamps is another player that is often overlooked.

In 2008, Deschamps was taken with the 35th overall selection, just a few picks outside the first round.

In 199 career games played in the QMJHL for Chicoutimi and Mocton, Deschamps was able to put up 228 points with a rating of plus-25.

After struggling as a Ducks prospect for a season and a half in Syracuse (53 points in 111 games and a minus-11 player rating), Deschamps was dealt to Toronto in a prospect swap that saw Luca Caputi going the other way.

However, after joining coach Dallas Eakins's Toronto Marlies, the 22-year-old native of Lasalle, Quebec was able to rediscover his game, collecting 30 points in his 40 games and posting a player rating of plus-13.

This postseason, Deschamps has also been a consistent contributor, putting up 12 points in his 16 playoff matches.

Despite his struggles in Syracuse, Toronto fans have cause to be optimistic considering how much talent this young gun has.  After another year in the minors, there's no telling what Deschamps could be capable of.

Mark Owuya

With all of the buzz this season surrounding Toronto and goaltending, it's ironic that Mark Owuya's name was not brought up more frequently.

At just 22 years old, Owuya is the youngest of any goaltender in the Maple Leafs organization that is playing professional hockey.

He signed a two-year entry level contract with Toronto after posting spectacular numbers last season with his hometown team, Djurgardens IF Stockholm of the Swedish Elite League (2.18 goals against average with a .926 save percentage).

What is even more exciting for Maple Leafs fans is the fact that after making the jump to North America this season, his numbers didn't falter.

In 19 games with the Toronto Marlies, Owuya's GAA was an extraordinary 1.94, with an impressive save percentage of .929.

Unfortunately for the young Swedish netminder, he was a victim of the numbers game.  

With Ben Scrivens and Jussi Rynnas occupying the blue paint for the Marlies for most of the season, that meant that Owuya found himself playing most of his season with the Reading Royals of the ECHL.

And though his GAA with Reading was a decent 2.63, he put up a magnificent .930 save percentage (meaning the GAA was caused more by the sheer amount of shots on goal against, and not Owuya's play).

With Jussi Rynnas having a fairly mediocre year, look for Owuya to pass him on the depth chart this fall, and potentially be the Leafs netminder of the future in a few years time.

Greg McKegg

In two or three years, when everyone is looking back at the biggest steals of the 2010 NHL entry draft, there is a strong chance that McKegg will be part of that discussion.

McKegg was only a third round draft pick in 2010, but since then, he's put up otherworldly numbers in his last few seasons in the OHL.

Between the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 seasons with the Erie Otters, McKegg scored 86 goals and 177 points in just 133 games, including an astounding 49 goals in the 2010-2011 campaign.

While he may not have had nearly as much success this year, he was still on the cusp of being a point-per-game player (34 points in 35 games) despite playing for a pitiful Erie Otters squad (they finished with a record of 10-52-0-6), before being dealt to the perennial powerhouse London Knights, where he regained his dominant form, scoring 41 points in 30 games.

He'll have to prove himself at the professional level before any wild prediction can be made about McKegg, but he certainly looks to be a player who may crack Toronto's second, or perhaps even first line in a few years.

Not too shabby for a 62nd overall pick.

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