Toronto Maple Leafs: Re-Drafting the 2012 NHL Entry Draft

The Toronto Maple Leafs of 2012 were a mess.

Back then, we just didn’t know it. The Toronto Maple Leafs, run by Brian Burke, were built around Phil Kessel and Dion Phaneuf, the infamous 2013 game against the Bruins hadn’t happened yet.

We were optimistic with dreams of Tyler Bozak as a first liner.

The Leafs hadn’t drafted high in a while.  Their last two picks had gone to the Bruins who used them to draft Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton, two guys well on their way to the Hall of Fame.

Phil Kessel will always be one of the best Toronto Maple Leafs of all-time, but it’s hard to look back on the Leafs of that era with any fondness.

Brian Burke and his regressive ways couldn’t have come at a worse time.  The NHL was on the verge of a statistical revolution which would forever change the way players were scouted, analyzed and drafted.

The Salary Cap was still fairly new, and the teams who were good at managing it were the successful ones.

Unfortunately for the Toronto Maple Leafs and their fans, Brian Burke and his bumbling assistant Dave Nonis were not interested in statistical analysis and had, at best, a passing knowledge of the salary cap.

It was a recipe for failure, and the Toronto Maple Leafs of today are only now recovering. Though, it must be said, that if not for Brian Burke and his absolute failure as Leafs general manager, the team wouldn’t have had the guts to bottom out and finally draft a real generational player to build the team around.

As for the 2012 draft, the Toronto Maple Leafs were extremely lucky to pick fifth and get Morgan Rielly, because a higher pick probably wouldn’t have worked out very well.

Let’s look at that draft in more detail.