Evaluating Every Player the Toronto Maple Leafs Drafted
1st Round, 29th Overall (From STL) – Rasmus Sandin (D, Sault St. Marie Greyhounds)
This pick was the most Kyle Dubas pick ever in so many ways.
First of all, Dubas continuously preaches the importancy of depth and proves it whenever he’s at the helm for a draft. In 2015, he traded down from 24th overall and turned it into two second rounders and a third rounder. He followed the same path this year, trading down from 25th overall to 29th overall and also recieving the 76th pick from St. Louis in the process.
Second of all, he took somebody from the Sault St. Marie Greyhounds, the team that he managed for several years and essentially built.
Third of all, this player ended up being Rasmus Sandin. A skilled puck moving defenseman who’s on the smaller side. Dubas is known to preach the importance of skill over size and remind fans that when drafting, it’s smart to take the best player available given that it’s much easier to draft skill and trade for size than draft size and trade for skill.
From the way Dubas and other scouts describe him, Sandin is just an all around solid player. He’s great offensively, putting up 45 points in 51 games this season. He’s good defensively, makes smart plays on the ice, and even has a physical side to his game despite his smaller frame.
The selection of Sandin represents the fact that the game is changing and the fact that skill is much more valuable than size. With a game that scouts have compared to Kimmo Timonen, Sandin could end up being a very solid pick in the long run.
2nd Round, 52nd Overall – Sean Durzi (D, Owen Sound Attack, OHL)
I’ll be honest. Leading up to this pick, I thought for sure the Leafs were going to take Akil Thomas.
The undersized centre was a projected first round pick who was slipping very quickly, but he ended up getting selected by the Los Angeles Kings one pick before the Leafs were on the clock.
Before the Leafs picked, I was disappointed that they didn’t land Thomas. But the selection of Durzi quickly wiped that disappointment away.
Born in Toronto, Durzi grew up a Leafs fan, cheering for them his whole life. As a right handed two-way defenseman, he fits the bill of one of the Leafs’ top needs. He just finished up a very successful campaign for the Attack, putting up 49 points in 40 games as a 19 year old. Regardless of his age, averaging over a point-per-game as a defenseman is always a good sign. He turns 20 in October, making him potentially eligible to join the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. If Leafs’ brass don’t think he’s ready, he’s also eligible to return to the OHL for one final season.
He’s been compared to Winnipeg Jets defenseman Tobias Enstrom a number of times, and while Enstrom isn’t anything incredible, a player of his skill would make him a successful second round pick.
3rd Round, 76th Overall – Semyon Der-Arguchintsev (C, Peterborough Petes, OHL)
Throughout this slide, we’re going to call Der-Arguchintsev “SDA” so I don’t have to type his name over and over.
SDA is the baby of the Leafs’ draft class. Both in terms of his size and his age. And he’s yet another Kyle Dubas type of pick.
In his second full OHL season, the Moskva native put up 51 points in 68 games. What makes this so impressive is the fact that he’s the youngest player in the draft.
Seriously. He was born on the cutoff date. If he was born just a few hours later, he would have been a prospect eligible for next year’s draft and probably would have been drafted higher.
Standing at 5’10 and 159lbs, SDA obviously isn’t known for his size. But again, with the way the league is developing and changing along the way, size matters less and less. He has elite vision and he’s a very good playmaking centre who only adds to the Leafs’ prospect centre depth.
Being poised to move into a bigger role for Petes next season, he’s sitting on a potential breakout season and could end up being a home-run type of pick. It’s also worth noting that he can stay in the OHL for as many as three more seasons given his age, so there’s lots of room for him to develop and improve his game.
3rd Round, 83rd Overall – Riley Stotts (C, Calgary Hitmen, WHL)
They kicked things off by taking two defensemen, and then changed the game and took two centres. The second one being Riley Stotts.
Stotts began his WHL career playing with the Swift Current Broncos but after a rough start to the season that saw him only put up three points in 22 games, he was shipped off to the Calgary Hitmen where he eventually found his mojo.
Finishing the season with 41 points in 47 games for the Hitmen, the Winnipeg native found himself all over the board in draft rankings.
Some scouts had him as high as 50, some as low as 120. But in the end, how he improves his game and develops over the next few years will determine where he puts himself in the Leafs centre rankings. The depth there is very, very thin, so he will be competing with fellow third rounder Semyon Der-Arguchintsev for placement on the depth chart. As we all know, depth at every position is important and the Leafs proved this by taking their second centre of the draft.
4th Round, 118th Overall – Mac Hollowell (D, Sault St. Marie Greyhounds, OHL)
It seems that one puck moving Greyhounds defenseman wasn’t enough for Dubas, so he went with two.
Mac Hollowell is an overager, but he possesses the tools to be a very good defenseman. He put up 56 points in 63 games in his most recent OHL campaign with the Greyhounds and carries a solid all around game.
This is another classic Dubas pick. Hollowell’s size may be a bit of a concern, standing at 5’9 and 170lbs, but at the same time people seem to forget that it isn’t 2003 anymore and that size is a non-issue in today’s NHL. Guys like Torey Krug, Jared Spurgeon, and Ryan Ellis are perfect examples of that. While size is certainly an added bonus, it means nothing if your hockey IQ and smarts are poor.
On that note, Hollowell could certainly bulk up over the next few years. William Nylander did it. Nylander was listed at 5’11 and 181lbs ahead of the 2014 NHL Draft, and now stands at 6’0 and 191lbs.
Hollowell turns 20 in September, so like fellow 2018 draft pick Sean Durzi, he’s eligible to join the Marlies this season. But again, if brass feels that he isn’t ready, then he’s also eligible to return to the AHL for one final season.
5th Round, 149th Overall – Filip Kral (D, Spokane Chiefs, WHL)
Defenseman, defenseman, centre, centre, defenseman, now another defenseman. Noticing a trend yet?
While Kyle Dubas always preaches taking the best player available, it also shows that he’s not ignoring the Leafs’ primary needs. Which are, surprise surprise, centres and defensemen.
Anyways, Kral is a Czech left handed defenseman playing in the WHL. He currently plays for the Spokane Chiefs alongside of 2018 first rounder Ty Smith. He’s known as a smart defenseman who most of the time will make the right play, but he won’t jump out at you with any one aspect of his game. He’s sound offensively, sound defensively, sound physically. At the same time though, this is normally expected of any fifth rounder. Scouts had him ranked all over the place. Some had him as low as 216, some as high as 54.
Anyways, Kral finished the season with 35 points in 54 games for the Chiefs, leading all WHL rookie defensemen in scoring, and was also part of the Czech U20 World Junior team. Kral joins a loaded LD depth chart and if he keeps working hard and rounding out the edges of his game, it will be interesting to see where the Leafs rank him.
6th Round, 156th Overall (From BUF) – Pontus Holmberg (LW, VIK Vasteras HK, Division 1)
Ah, the trend is finally broken.
After selecting exclusively centres and defensemen, the Leafs drafted skilled left winger Pontus Holmberg at 156th overall.
The Maple Leafs didn’t initially have a second round pick, but they swung a deal with the Buffalo Sabres to obtain the first pick of the sixth round. Speaking of which, that was kind of a pointless deal for the Sabres. They gave up an early sixth rounder in exchange for the Leafs’ sixth round pick in 2019, which will without a doubt end up late in the round.
Anyways, back on track. The Leafs must have seen something in Holmberg that they really liked considering that they acquired a sixth rounder to pick him. Scouts describe him as a skilled playmaker who has a knack for setting up his teammates and exploiting the simplest play available.
He spent this season playing for VIK Vasteras HK of Sweden’s Division 1 league, which is their third tier league behind the SHL and the Allsvenskan league. Holmberg did however appear in two SHL games with the Vaxjo Lakers of the SHL, entirely skipping the Allsvenskan league. He’s under contract with Vaxjo for next season, so it will be interesting to see how he fares against men in the pros.
7th Round, 209th Overall (From ANA) – Zachary Bouthillier (G, Chicoutimi Sagueneens, QMJHL)
Hey, look. The trend remains broken.
The Maple Leafs selected Bouthillier at 209th overall and to be totally honest, his stats aren’t overly impressive.
He played in 38 regular season games for the Sagueneens this year and posted a record of 13-17 with a goals-against-average of 3.42 and a save percentage of .894.
On a positive note, though, he appeared in six playoff games for Chicoutimi and while he only won two out of six, he put up a goals-against-average of 2.76 with a save percentage of .931.
The Leafs have already added two goalies to their prospect pool within the past few years in Joseph Woll and Ian Scott. While Bouthillier currently finds himself at the bottom of the depth chart, improving his game and statistics over his final two junior seasons could help him boost himself in the rankings.
7th Round, 211th Overall – Semyon Kizimov (RW, Ladia Togliatti, MHL)
Aaaaaaaand there it is. The random Eastern European that nobody has heard of before.
I brought this up in my 2017 draft recap. Every year since the Leafs revamped their scouting staff, they’ve taken at least one random player from Eastern Europe. Martins Dzierkals in 2015, Nikolai Chebykin in 2016, and Vladislav Kara in 2017. In my other article, I questioned whether or not Mark Hunter leaving would impact this, trend, and now my question is answered. It didn’t.
Kizimov spent this season playing for Ladia Togliatti of the MHL, which is the Russian equivalent of the CHL. He put up 18 points in 30 games this season and recorded three points in three games for Russia in the U18 World Juniors.
For next season, the 6’0 right-winger is under contract with Lada Togliatti of the VHL, the Russian equivalent of the AHL for next season, so if Kizimov will ever become something, the majority of his development will take place overseas. I wish I could tell you guys more about Kizimov, but there really isn’t much to say.
Next: Toronto Maple Leafs Top Prospects
He doesn’t even have a hockeydb page. But like Chebykin and Kara, Kizimov will still be worth keeping an eye on in terms of his progression as a player.
All statistics obtained from eliteprospects.com and hockeydb.com