Adam Brooks
Adam Brooks has sort of come out of nowhere to climb the Toronto Maple Leafs top prospect list.
Brooks was picked in the fourth round, 92nd overall, in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft. At 20 years old, he was an over-ager, almost two full years older than most players selected. These kinds of picks are long-shots at best, but the Maple Leafs seem to have guessed right about Brooks being a late-bloomer.
One reason for Brooks originally being undrafted has to do with his size – NHL teams seem to perpetually underrate small players. Though, it’s not like Brooks is all that small, but 5’10 175 is small for NHL centres.
If you look at his stats, another reason for his not being drafted emerges. In his first two seasons in the WHL, Brooks put up 12 and 11 points. After scoring 11 points, he was passed over in the NHL draft.
Then, a year later, he jumped to 62. That’s an impressive jump, but it still wasn’t enough to get him drafted.
Brooks then went back to Regina for a third season and scored 120 points, and won the scoring title, nearly doubling his previous total. This is when the Leafs drafted him.
After being drafted, he went back for a fifth season in the WHL and scored 130 points. This was good for second in the WHL (he missed the title by a point) and was 21 points more than 3rd place.
To go from being undrafted to nearly winning two straight scoring titles is impressive, and it will be interesting to see how Brooks does in the AHL. The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed him to an entry level deal and he most likely will play the upcoming season in for the Marlies. With Brooks, however, what is most likely to happen doesn’t seem to matter, so for all we know he’ll be racking up the points with the Leafs sometime soon.