The Toronto Maple Leafs have a great young roster and a main reason for that is through drafting and development.
Although the Toronto Maple Leafs best players are former top-10 NHL draft picks, a lot of their depth players are diamonds in the rough.
Anyone can pick Auston Matthews or John Tavares as the number-one overall pick in the NHL Entry Draft. However, finding a player late in the draft who can be productive on your roster is hard work.
Everyone knows that once you’re out of the first round, or even first 5 picks, it’s a crab-shoot to find high-talent. That’s why it’s so important to have a great scouting department in the NHL. If you can find players through the NHL Entry Draft late then you’re going to get a real advantage on the rest of the league.
Look at the Toronto Maple Leafs for example. Sure, their best players were first round picks, but those generational talents are all surrounded by players like Zach Hyman (5th Round, 123rd overall), Alex Kerfoot (5th Round, 150th overall) and Andreas Johnsson (7th Round, 202nd overall).
When building a roster in the salary cap era, it’s crucial to the organization that they continue to stockpile talent outside of the first round.
Although he’s yet to play in the NHL, Leaf fans are hoping that someone like Nick Robertson (2nd Round, 53rd overall) can be the next player outside the first round to make a difference for the team.
As a result, let’s look at the top 5 biggest NHL Draft steals in Leafs history:
#5. Alexei Ponikarovsky
Draft Year: 1998 NHL Entry Draft, 4th round, 87th overall
Ponikarovsky had three 20-goal seasons in Toronto in addition to two seasons with 18 and 19 goals respectively.
As a fourth round pick, Ponikarovsky is top-20 in total points in his 1998 NHL Entry Draft class, and was a reliable player on a line with Nic Antropov during the mid-2000s.
#4. Carl Gunnarsson
Draft Year: 2007 NHL Entry Draft, 7th round, 194th overall
The defenseman from Sweden was never a point producer, so that’s maybe why he fell so far in the draft.
With 616 career games, Gunnarsson has the 20th most NHL games played by any player in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft and won a Stanley Cup with St. Louis last season.
#3. Andreas Johnsson
Draft Year: 2013 NHL Entry Draft, 7th Round, 202nd overall
Although the sample size isn’t as long as some other players, Johnsson has already shown that he’s one of the biggest draft steals in Leafs history.
In 2018, Johnsson won a Calder Cup MVP en-route to winning a championship with the Toronto Marlies. Not only that, but in his first full season with the Leafs, Johnsson scored 20 goals and 43 points
#2. Anton Stralman
Draft Year: 2005 NHL Entry Draft, 7th Round, 216th overall
818 career NHL games and going strong, Stralman has been a steady defenseman for years.
Although Stralman is one of the biggest steals in Leafs history, he’s also one of the biggest regrets. Of those 818 career NHL games, Stralman only played 88 of them with the Leafs before being traded in 2009.
#1. Tomas Kaberle
Draft Year: 1996 NHL Entry Draft, 8th Round, 204th overall
If there was a re-draft of the 1996 NHL Entry Draft, Kaberle would be a top-five pick, compared to an 8th round selection he once was.
Kaberle leads the 1996 NHL Draft class with 476 assists and is fifth overall in points. For 10 seasons, Kaberle was the best Leafs defenseman and although it was tough to see him traded, it was nice that he was able to capture a Stanley Cup with Boston in 2011 before he retired.