Toronto Maple Leafs: Draft Best Player Available

The Toronto Maple Leafs will draft 17th overall this year.

The Toronto Maple Leafs also have a whole bunch of wingers, and very little depth on defense. Even outside of the NHL level, the team’s defense prospect cupboard is pretty bare.

Travis Dermott, Andrew Neilsen, Rinat Valiev, Calle Rosen, Andreas Bergman. That’s about it. And while one or more of those players might develop into a useful NHL defenseman, possibly even a star player, none are sure bets to even make the NHL.

The Leafs have Morgan Rielly, Jake Gardiner, Nikita Zaitsev and a bunch of question marks. Maybe Connor Carrick develops. Maybe he doesn’t even make the team next year.

At this point, no one knows.

What we do know is that the Toronto Maple Leafs are stacked with talent, have a good cap situation and are on the verge of contending.

So everyone is talking about Cal Foote – the son of Adam Foote. Foote (the younger) is a right-handed defenseman. Ostensibly with his father’s defensive acumen. Many people think the Leafs currently need a defensive defenseman who shoots right. Foote is projected to possibly be available when the Leafs are supposed to draft.

But this line of thinking doesn’t make any sense.

For one, by the time Foote is ready to make an impact in the NHL (if he ever does) the Leafs might well be flush with right-shooting defenseman. Who knows what they’ll need two, three years down the road.

This is but one example, but it illustrates my point perfectly: You have to pick the best athlete available, even if he plays a position you are stocked at.

You normally do not get an NHL ready player at the 17th pick, so why bother worrying about who they can get in relation to what they need.

The Leafs must pick the best player left at 17, regardless of position.

In fact, a 17th pick isn’t even that good. If they can, they should take advantage of the fact that people overrate draft picks and use it to improve their current roster. If that isn’t an option, trade down and get an extra pick.

As for Adam Foote’s son, I don’t know much about him, but I do know this: I would never spend a first round pick on a defensemen that didn’t project to be an offensive puck-mover.

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Not in a million years would I draft a player whose main selling points seems to be that his dad was a good defenseman and that he shoots right. Now, Foote did rack up 57 points last year, but that was in a league where five players had 100 points in under 70 games.

If Foote is legitimately the best player the Leafs can get, then fine. But the line of thinking that he’s exactly what they need is wrong.

Stats from hockeydb.com

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