Evaluating the Toronto Maple Leafs 2014 NHL Entry Draft

The 2014 NHL Entry Draft is the year where Aaron Ekblad went #1 overall, and the Toronto Maple Leafs drafted William Nylander 8th.

The 2014 Draft was also the last draft of the Dave Nonis era (thankfully) and the first of the Brendan Shanahan era.  Shanahan was hired just a couple months before the draft, and he took a hands-off, wait and see approach to the organization for the first year, before axing Nonis and co.

While this draft gifted the Leafs Nylander at 8th – a redo would have Nylander go third behind Leon Draisaitl and Braydon Point – it is generally pretty bad for them otherwise.

Still, any year where your draft is being run by lame duck management and you still get a potential franchise player is pretty sweet.

Toronto Maple Leafs 2014 Draft

Nylander went first, 8th overall, then the Leafs didn’t pick till the third round where they took defenseman Rinat Valiev, who is no longer with the organization. (Draft information from hockeydb.com).

With their Third pick, the Leafs got J.J Piccinich, who did play six games with the Marlies this year, but who is 24 and never signed an NHL contract.

Fourth pick, fifth round, was Dakota Joshua, who did not ever sign an NHL contract or play for the Marlies.  Today it was announced that the Leafs would not sign him and that they would let his rights expire.

In the sixth round, the Toronto Maple Leafs took Nolan Vesey – he signed with the Oilers eventually.

The Leafs last pick was Pierre Engvall.  Engvall is often talked about as a potential NHLer, he is still in the Leafs system, under contract, and scored seven points for the Marlies in this year’s playoffs.

That’s it.

Six picks total, one potential cornerstone player,  one D level prospect and four total duds who didn’t work out.  Of the 251 total NHL games played by players the Leafs drafted in 2017, 239 of them are by William Nylander.

It was a bad draft from an overall talent perspective, but at least it yielded one good player who happens to be among the best players the Toronto Maple Leafs have ever drafted.  Nylander alone makes this a great draft, but the Shanahan era could have gotten off to a better start if Nonis was at all competent.

Drafting a Nylander-level player rarely happens, so the Leafs ultimately can’t complain about this draft, although going o-for on the rest of the picks is pretty bad.

Credit where it’s due though they had the 8th pick and got the (at worst) 3rd best player.  Given the Toronto Maple Leafs extremely lame draft history, Nylander alone makes it one of their better drafts.

Still, for all the good it did them, they could have just gone home after the first round with the TV cameras.