Scott Pearson
Say what you will about the previous three picks, but even if they weren’t perfect, they still gave the Leafs a really good foundation of players to build around.
1988 came around and the Leafs were still terrible, still picking high.
They had the sixth pick and they used it on winger Scott Pearson.
Pearson was a bust. He ended up playing just under 300 NHL games and never hit the 20 goal mark.
Had the Leafs hit on this pick, who knows what could have happened.
But they didn’t. They picked Pearson, and the next four picks were Martin Gelanis, Jeremy Roenick, Rod Brindamour and Teemu Selanne. All of whom played at least 1200 games and scored at least 300 goals.
Oops!