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Top 10 Toronto Maple Leafs Draft Misses: 2000s Edition

By Stephen Nixon

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 13: Justin Williams #14 of the Washington Capitals scores a goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first period in Game One of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2017 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Verizon Center on April 13, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 13: Justin Williams #14 of the Washington Capitals scores a goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first period in Game One of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2017 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Verizon Center on April 13, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) /
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DALLAS, TX – OCTOBER 09: Ben Bishop #30 of the Dallas Stars makes a save in front of John Tavares #91 of the Toronto Maple Leafs . (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
DALLAS, TX – OCTOBER 09: Ben Bishop #30 of the Dallas Stars makes a save in front of John Tavares #91 of the Toronto Maple Leafs . (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /

The Toronto Maple Leafs are never going to draft perfectly and there are many of examples of this throughout the 2000s.

This is the third of a four-part Toronto Maple Leafs draft misses series and today we’ll be talking about the 2000s.

After looking back the Leafs draft history this decade, the team actually drafted pretty well.

Nazem Kadri, James Reimer, Leo Komarov, Nikolay Kulemin, Tuukka Rask, Anton Stralman, Alex Steen and Matthew Stajan are just a few of the names the Toronto Maple Leafs drafted that went onto to solid NHL careers.

The biggest name within that bunch is obviously Rask.

With their first round selection in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, the team went with the Finnish goaltender, despite having just drafted Justin Pogge a year prior.

Although the team didn’t have to make a decision so quickly, they decided to pick Pogge over Rask, trading him to Boston for another goaltender named Andrew Raycroft.

Rask would go onto to win a Vezina Trophy and is considered one of the best goaltenders in the NHL, while the Toronto Maple Leafs sat back and had mediocre goaltending until Freddie Andersen arrived.

Although the Leafs scouting department did an amazing job by drafting Rask, they also did a terrible job by selecting Pogge and picking him over Rask as their future number-one.

As much as a decision like that seemed small at the time, it ended up being one of the worst decisions  in franchise history and still haunts them 14 years later.

To recap the criteria to be considered a draft “miss”, please read below:

  • The player can only be a “miss” if another team selected that individual within five picks of the Toronto Maple Leafs draft pick.

Now let’s look at the top 10 draft misses of the 2000s.

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