#2 Nick Robertson
The Toronto Maple Leafs took a chance on a kid who was four days away from not qualifying for the draft.
Robertson was taken 58th overall, despite being the youngest player available.
It’s a risk that is paying off in spades for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Robertson currently has 33 goals in 30 games in the OHL. He also has 50 points and if he wasn’t injured would be competing for the OHL’s scoring title.
Robertson, if he was four days older, would be a likely top ten pick this summer.
When you’re pulling off moves like this with frequency, who cares if you have to trade your first round pick to improve the NHL team? Not Kyle Dubas, apparently.
Robertson is a beast who has a very good chance of being a star player in the NHL.
The only thing stopping him from being the Leafs top prospect is that they’ve got another superstar in the making playing a premier position.
Still, there is no reason for a team that is a Cup Contender to have prospects like this. The Athletic’s Corey Pronman just ranked him 11th out of all drafted prospects. He says he has an elite shot, and elite vision.
That means that the world’s leading prospect evaluator thinks the player the Leafs drafted 58th six months ago ranks as the 11th best player who has recently been drafted and isn’t currently in the NHL.
A re-draft would see him go higher than the player the Kings used with the Leafs 1st picks. (Tobias Bjornfot).