Top Prospect Traded Once Again Confirming his Fate with Maple Leafs Next Season

Sam McCue is going to be earning a lot of frequent flyer miles already in his young career, as the Maple Leafs prospect was dealt once again this year, this time from the Flint Firebirds to the Brantford Bulldogs.

Suffice to say the Bulldogs were certainly interested in McCue, considering they dropped seven draft picks on him, but there's a lot to like about McCue, who had a fantastic season this year.

In 55 games with both Owen Sound and Flint, he scored 36 goals, 19 assists with 36 PIM and a plus-4 rating.

It seems that his path leads him to being labeled as an 'over-ager' in the OHL, meaning he surpasses the regulated age limit, and teams are able to hold only a limited amount of those players.

McCue, 19, is a pleasant surprise for both his OHL clubs and the Maple Leafs. Drafted 216th overall in last year's draft, he's come out of nowhere and become one of the team's most underrated prospects.

He's exactly the type of player that fits the bill in the Brad Treliving and Craig Berube regime. At 6'3, 191 pounds, he's still got room to bulk up but still isn't afraid of getting into the nitty gritty.

He crashes the net, uses his size to provide solid screens, and tends to use both a booming slap shot and a deceptively heavy wrist shot to give goalies headaches.

The knock on him has been his skating, but if he can work with the Maple Leafs development coaches, that can be something improved on it time.

For his OHL career, he has 93 points (59G, 34A), 124 PIM, and a minus-9 rating in 156 games.

Unfortunately it's really hard to say. He's had a great junior career, and is only going to be 20 come October but given the Maple Leafs have a lot of other prospects and Marlies hopefuls; it might need to take one more stellar season.

While he's progressed well over his career thus far, it's hard to see him reaching that next level without really honing his skating and if he can work on his discipline, that'll go a long way too.

He might not end up more than a third or fourth liner with the team, and while that doesn't reflect his current output, it's tough to imagine him making an impact higher than that.

But for now, McCue will get a chance to show Brantford exactly why they paid so much for him, and it could define his future with the Maple Leafs come the next few seasons.