Chart Toppers: The Toronto Maple Leafs Prospect Ladder Redux

By Steve Gandour
Brad Boyes on the strength of his second straight Red Tillson trophy and first ever Wayne Gretzky 99 award has finally usurped Mikael Tellqvist as the top prospect in the Maple Leafs farm system. For his part, Tellqvist, rebounded well from a shaky start with a solid end to his year and still remains the top ranked Leaf netminder in the pipeline, but he faces a stiff challenge from Sebastien Centomo who rose all they way up from #17 to #4. Centomo’s brilliant year however was not enough to pass the Leafs top ranked defenseman, Karel Pilar who rose 5 spots on the charts to set the standard for Leaf defenseman. Pilar landed in at number 3, two spots ahead of former leading defenseman, Carlo Colaiacovo who drops two spots this season.

Markus Seikola dropped two spots on the charts on the basis of his lack of production and thus Alexei Ponikarovsky remained secure at number 6. The highest first timer to the charts checks in at number 8, as Jay Harrison on the strength of his break out offensive number and continuous hits has made a huge impression. While Luca Cereda stood still on the charts, he watched as Petr Svoboda took a nose dive 6 spots on the basis of a dissapointing follow up number to his previous years success. Almost dropping as fast, Jeff Farkas on the basis of a complete stall out of the gates dropped by 4 notches. Jeff’s last minute comeback tour kept him just barely ahead of the charging Kyle Wellwood who used his feistiness and playoff heart to raise 3 notches in the ranks.

Jaroslav Sklenar stood still at number 13 while dropping 4 notches to number 14 was Tomas Mojzis whose playoff disappearing act went wrong when it took his team with him. Tomas occupied the space last occupied by Regan Kelly who dropped a notch with a second season let down. Skating up into the charts for the first time into number 16 is Maxim Kondratiev whose impressive performance on the World stage has scouts crying encore. The spot was previously occupied by Nicolas Corbeil who dropped one notch to 17. Brendan Bell became the third first timer on the charts, checking in at number 18 thanks to his second straight solid season. The biggest drop in this year’s chart saw Ivan Kolozvary drop 7 spots to 19th after a terribly dissapointing season. Chris Chartier rounds out this top 20 by sticking in for one more year at number 20.

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