The Worst Fleecing
Date: June 24, 2011
Leafs Acquire: 22nd Overall Pick (Tyler Biggs)
Ducks Acquire: 30th Overall Pick (Rickard Rakell), 39th Overall Pick (John Gibson)
Yeah, this is a rough one.
On Draft Day 2011, Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke was looking to add truculence to the Leafs prospect pool. With two late firsts and an early second-round pick, Toronto was shaped up to have a promising draft if they could hit on their picks.
Oh, boy did they ever miss.
With picks 25 and 30 in hand, Burke paid the hefty price of the 39th pick to move up eight slots to select USNTDP winger Tyler Biggs. Listed at 6-foot-2 and over 200 pounds, this was exactly the hard-working, physical player Toronto wanted to add to the organization.
Anaheim meanwhile, were targeting more skill and welcomed the opportunity to add another high selection. Moving back to 30, they took Swedish centre Rickard Rakell out of Plymouth in the OHL, who was coming off of a near point per game season.
On Day Two, the Ducks snagged the consensus top goaltender in the draft, John Gibson, with the 39th pick they got from Toronto when Nashville went off the board to take Magnus Hellberg one pick before them.
Now, we all know how this has played out. Biggs never found his footing at the pro level, topping out at nine points in his first AHL season before ending up in the ECHL shortly thereafter.
Rakell and Gibson, on the other hand, have become two significant pieces for the Ducks
. Gibson has emerged as one of the best netminders in the NHL, the main reason why Anaheim was able to part with Frederik Andersen in that 2016 deal with Toronto.
Rakell has also carved out a solid career to this point, peaking at 69 points in 2017/18 and has become a mainstay in Anaheim’s top six.
To add insult to injury, Biggs is the highest drafted player out of the 2011 Draft to not appear in an NHL game.
As incredible as it is, the Toronto Maple Leafs have gifted the Ducks most of their NHL roster of the past decade. It all began with this first Draft Day deal on June 24, but the very next day the Leafs traded out of the sixth round in a late-round swap that saw Anaheim land Josh Manson and Toronto select Ryan Rupert.
When the Leafs were in desperate need of a centre back in 2013, they sent the picks which would be used to select Marcus Pettersson and Ondrej Kase to Anaheim for Peter Holland as well.
Next time in the Toronto Maple Leafs trading history series, I’ll take a look at the infrequent history of deals between Toronto and the Winnipeg/Arizona franchise.