The Toronto Maple Leafs are scheduled to pick 25th tomorrow night.
The NHL Entry Draft is tomorrow night in Dallas. Round one is Friday, Rounds 2-7 will be held Saturday. The Toronto Maple Leafs hold picks in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th round. For a full breakdown and basically all the off-season info you could ever want, check HERE.
The draft is the absolute best non-game hockey-related event that there is. Trade Deadline Day and the July 1st Free Agent Day are EXTREMELY over-hyped. The NHL Awards are an unwatchable joke. The Draft, however, is always fun. There are trades, drama and most of all, it’s fun.
The Leafs are going to pick 25th, unless they trade it. I predict that they will. The team has to improve for the upcoming season in order to avoid wasting their last season where Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner do not combine to make about $20 million (or 25% of the Cap).
The NHL announced yesterday that the Cap will be between 79-80 million, so that’s good news for the Leafs who have almost $30 million they can spend if they want.
Yesterday the Leafs made me very happy when they re-signed Connor Carrick. Carrick is a player who helps the Leafs gain and keep possession of the puck, and he pairs well with Gardiner. He didn’t play much last year, but that’s on Babcock. He definitely should have been above Polak on the depth chart, and you can make a good statistical argument that he should have played ahead of both Hainsey and Zaitsev as well. Hopefully the Leafs make him a regular this year. They’re still pretty thin on the right side, however, so I expect them to add.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Players I’d like to see the Leafs pursue are Chris Tanev (Vancouver) and Mark Pysyk (Florida). Both of these players are excellent at actually playing defense. Unlike Polak, who gets credit for being defensive because he hits people, these players actually contribute positively to team defense. The Leafs would be drastically improved by adding one or both.
Besides defenseman, the Leafs also need to add wingers or a centre who can play better defense. Kadri has done an admirable job, but he’s not an elite defensive centre no matter how much want that to be the case. Also, he scored 32 goals in a defensive role and it would be nice to see what his offense could do with some nicer matchups.
Jordan Staal is someone I’d like to see them add if Tavares doesn’t happen. And I think it will. As of now, Tavares still hasn’t resigned in New York and I don’t know why he would. Whether its money (advertisements), winning or fame, Toronto has the best situation in the league and it also happens to be his home town. The Leafs are going to sign him – just wait.
As for defensive wingers, two options should be pending UFA Jakob Silfverber (Anaheim) and Nino Niederreiter (Minnesota). Both are among the NHL’s best defensive players, and both could probably be had for the right price ( a high one that is worth paying).
Finally, what about those NHL awards? How does Morgan Rielly not get a single Norris Trophy Vote? It’s ridiculous. The two vote leaders were winner Victor Hedman and Drew Doughty. They, along with Rielly, were the only three defenseman in the NHL last year to finish the season with at least 50 points and positive possession metrics while facing top competition.
Next: Top Ten Prospects (2018) Part 2
The fact that Rielly didn’t get a single vote is a complete indictment of the voters. A joke is what it is.
Anyways, hope y’all are having a great day, I have draft Fever and feel fine. I can’t wait for tomorrow night.