Campbellville, Ont., native and Guelph Storm center Tyler Hopkins ranks No. 9 in THN's Toronto Maple Leafs prospect ranking.
Coming in at No. 9 of TheHockeyNews.com's top 10 ranking of Toronto Maple Leafs prospects is Tyler Hopkins.
The players in this ranking do not have extensive NHL experience and are all under 23. Therefore, players such as William Villeneuve, Artur Akhtyamov and Easton Cowan, among others, won't feature in this ranking for either or both of those particular reasons.
In terms of where these players fall in the rankings, it is a mix of their ceiling and potential, as well as how they've performed in the past year with their respective clubs.
Hopkins was selected by the Maple Leafs in the third round of the 2025 NHL draft with pick No. 86. He is an OHL veteran to this point in his young career, featuring in 182 regular-season games, all before turning 20 years old. His time in the Ontario League is made up of parts of three years with the Kingston Frontenacs and about half of a season with the Guelph Storm, which took him to the end of the 2025-26 campaign following a trade from Kingston to Guelph.
The 2007-born center has proven to be rather consistent over the past two seasons. With Kingston in 2024-25, Hopkins scored 20 goals and 51 points in 67 games.
This past year, he stepped up in the goals department, recording 25 markers and 50 points in far fewer games, making 56 regular-season appearances. Hopkins scored an additional two goals in Guelph's four post-season games before getting eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Windsor Spitfires. He was also an alternate captain for both of the teams he represented in 2025-26.
Though his campaign in the OHL ended on a very sour note, Hopkins is a winner with the national team. The Campbellville, Ont.-born player hasn't represented Team Canada in any major tournaments this past year, but was a part of two championships in 2024-25.
Canada won gold at the 2024 Hlinka-Gretzky Cup, with Hopkins registering one assist in five games at that tournament. They also won the IIHF 2025 U-18 World Championship that season, dismantling Sweden in the gold medal game 7-0. Hopkins notched one assist in six games, which game in the final.
Speaking of Hopkins' contributions to Hockey Canada, he was invited to the team's World Junior Summer Showcase in Windsor, Ont., which took place from late July to early August.
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