Brian S

This past week was pretty busy when it comes to news and updates for Toronto's prospects, plus some small notes I didn't get from the previous week. So let's just get into it!

It's been a couple of weeks since my last prospect report. I was laid off from my job at the beginning of the month and let's just say my mind was not in a great place even before that. I've been doing enough prospect watching as a distraction from my

Looking at the latest bunch of prospects for this coming draft that have caught my interest.

Catching up on Toronto's prospects after the holidays and the World Juniors.

I'm not going to lie, when I saw that the Leafs won the lottery I was not jumping up and down excited. I laughed, because it was hilarious, but I think I honestly would have been happier if they just kept their 5th overall pick. It's not that I think the players who they could draft there are better than whoever they decide on at 1st overall, it's mainly because I had some hangups about both McKenna and Stenberg and I liked the idea of being able to allow the four teams ahead of the Leafs to make the decision for them by who they leave available.

It's funny the similarities that McKenna and Stenberg have, considering how different they are. They're both 6'0" and left shot wingers with late 2007 birthdays who have been considered top prospects for years already. Beyond that, however, the reasons why they're so good comes from different places. If Toronto were to take Stenberg over McKenna, or trade down to get him later, it would likely be because the team wants to go in a different direction from the high octane skill that McKenna represents.

Chase Reid may be considered the top defense prospect in the draft, but there are a lot of others in the top 10 who are considered – at least by some scouts, and probably some NHL teams – to be close, if not better. I wouldn't be surprised if as many as seven of the top ten picks this year wind up being defensemen: Chase Reid, Carson Carels, Keaton Verhoeff, Albert Smits, Daxon Rudolph, with lower odds on Ryan Lin or Xavier Villeneuve... and my personal favourite, Malte Gustafsson.

I swear I didn't do this on purpose, but I noticed after putting my list together that there's like a 75/25 split in the player's birthdays. 75% of them (rough guess) are relatively young for the draft, born in June to September. The other 25% are late 2007 birthdays from September to December. Completely accidental.

One of the big fallers in this year's draft is Mathis Preston. He came into this season definitely in the top 10, maybe even the top 5. There are some scouts I know who were talking about him potentially competing for the first overall pick – and this is my reminder that McKenna was never a consensus first overall for pretty much any period this year.

Cover flashes a lot of high level skill thanks to one of the deeper set of tools in the draft, but some consistency issues could keep him out of the first round.