T20U20: #20(to 1) Revealed!

So, despite being a good Leafs blog to recommend, the bloglords here at AGLB failed to notice a big flaw in the criteria we chose for the T20U20 (ranking the top 20 Maple Leafs under 20 who were on the roster last year).  We have now learned that there is apparently only one Leafs player who fits these criteria.  That being said, we committed to this feature and will most definitely* make it an annual, or even biannual, event here at A Good Leafs Blog.

Head on past the jump to see who actually qualified for the list and won because of the two sweetest words in the English language, de fault...

And the winner is.... Auston Matthews!
Embed from Getty Images

Matthews, as you all know, won the Calder Trophy as the NHL's best rookie for the 2016-2017 season, and came second in the league in goals with 40.  He did all of this as a 19-year-old and is still (checks wikipedia because it's the only resource we can afford) under 20 as of the posting of this story.  So he is good, just like this blog, and played on the Leafs.  To the best of our knowledge, he qualifies for this list.

Because of the limited players who fit our predetermined criteria, Auston fills out numbers 20 to 1 on this year's list by default.  I therefore don't really see the point in explaining his ranking or writing anything else about him; he won because he was the only horse in the race.  That's it.  Even if he was horrible, he would have won.  His accomplishments mean nothing in the context of this article.

That being said, we are hopeful that AGLB grows enough before next year that we have the ability to do the research to expand the list to include at least those players who have signed ELCs, regardless of whether they've played for the Leafs regularly before.  Who knows, we may even be able to include unsigned prospects one day.  One can only hope.

In the meantime, we at AGLB will continue to ensure that this is a quality Leafs blog that you can recommend to your friends.  In the coming days/weeks/maybe a month, I will be coming up with some cool new ideas to add to the summertime content of this blog.**  Also, training camp starts soon so maybe there will be things to write about then.

*maybe
**will make best efforts