Wendel Clark
The year was 1985 and the Leafs had their first ever first-overall selection. It would be 32 years until they got another (though Mats Sundin and Bryan Berard were first-overall selections they traded for).
Clark will go down as one of the greatest players in Toronto Maple Leafs history. Perhaps the #1 most beloved player in franchise history.
Clark scored 330 NHL goals and played into the 99-00 season. He was great, but how great would he have been if they kept him from fighting and he wasn’t perpetually injured.
Watching the old Clark/Probert fights is pretty fun, but what were the Leafs thinking allowing their best player to fight so much? Especially against other teams enforcers (though, little known fact, Probert once scored 29 goals in a year).
As good as Clark was, it’s hard to think about him without remembering that had the Leafs had the First-Overall pick the year before, they would have gotten Mario Lemieux!
Still, a great selection. If only the Leafs could have kept it up.