The Toronto Maple Leafs season once again ended earlier than fans wanted it to.
For the second year in a row and the third time in the past six years, the Toronto Maple Leafs were eliminated in the first round at the hands of the Boston Bruins.
I’m not going to talk about that because I know every fan is sick of hearing about it. Instead, let’s talk about something a little bit more promising. The 2019 NHL Draft.
This is the first season since 2009-10 where the Maple Leafs do not have a first round pick, having traded it to Los Angeles in a package that brought defenseman Jake Muzzin back to Toronto.
Albin Grewe
Normally around this time of year, I would be publishing an article on who the Leafs should select with their first round pick, but since that’s not applicable this season, I’m going to push it back and write about who I think they should take with their second round pick which currently sits at 53rd overall.
Enter Albin Grewe.
A native of Marsta, Sweden, Grewe is a 6’0 176lb centre who’s under contract with Djurgardens IF of the SHL.
He spent the majority of this season playing for Djurgardens’ J20 team, putting up 34 points in 25 games. He’s known as a checking centre who’s solid at both ends of the ice and has a nice scoring touch to his game as well. He can also play right wing as well as centre.
Why Albin Grewe?
It’s a bit of a crapshoot as to who will go where once the first few are off the board, but the reason I think the Leafs are going to pounce on Grewe is because he strikes me as a very similar prospect to Carl Grundstrom.
Of course, the Leafs dealt Grundstrom along with their first round pick as well as defensive prospect Sean Durzi in the Jake Muzzin trade.
Before the trade, Grundstrom was a top prospect in the Leafs’ system. Known for his role as a gritty forward with goal scoring ability, I had him projected to become a middle six forward for the Maple Leafs who was capable of scoring 20 goals a season.
Ideally, I’m sure the Leafs would have rather kept Grundstrom, but you need to trade value to get value back. Grewe possesses all of the same traits that Grundstrom has, but he could potentially turn out better.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have had good luck with Swedish prospects in recent years proven with guys like William Nylander (yes, he’s still a good player despite how much fans love to hate him.)
Andreas Johnsson, Rasmus Sandin, Timothy Liljegren, even Dmytro Timashov is looking like he could turn out to be something. With all of this talent in the system, they might as well take a flyer on another Swedish prospect.
There is still the chance that Grewe gets scooped off of the board before the Toronto Maple Leafs can shoot their shot.
Like I said, the draft is a crapshoot. But the Leafs managed to get Grundstrom at 57th overall despite him originally being projected as a first round pick, so who knows? Anything could happen.
Regardless of whether or not the Toronto Maple Leafs have a first round pick, the draft is still as exciting a time as any for me and I look forward to providing more coverage on it for you guys.