Top 10 Toronto Maple Leafs Misses: 2010s Edition

#2. Patrik Laine (2016 NHL Entry Draft, 1st Round, 2nd Overall)

Toronto’s Actual Pick: 1st Round, 1st Overall (Auston Matthews)

Was this really a miss? No.

For one, Matthews is a center and that’s more valuable. Secondly, the majority of Laine’s goals come on the power-play, compared to Matthews who does his damage 5v5.

And finally, Laine just isn’t that good defensively, whereas Matthews takeaway ability is one of his best skills.

So, how could he be a miss for the Leafs? Well it comes down to dollars and cents.

For essentially the same cost of Auston Matthews, the Winnipeg Jets have Mark Scheifele and Laine. If you’re a Leafs’ fan, would you rather have one 40-to-50 goal scorer in Matthews or would you rather have Scheifele and Laine who both average between 30-and-40 goals?

The team would still be able to pay Tavares, Nylander and Marner, but instead would have Laine for $5 million per year cheaper. That extra money could be used for a number of things. They could use it to get an extra defenseman, re-sign Andersen or get another depth forward without having to trade anything away to save money.

Alright enough with the antics. I’d rather have Matthews too but it was fun to debate.

#1. Sebastian Aho (2015 NHL Entry Draft, 2nd Round, 35th Overall)

Toronto’s Actual Pick: 2nd Round, 34th Overall (Travis Dermott)

This was a good scouting job by Toronto, but even better by Carolina.

With the 34th overall selection, the Leafs picked Dermott who is turning into a top-four defenseman in the NHL. Those types of players are hard to find and every team is looking for a better defensive-core, so it was a good selection at the time and still is.

However, they did miss out on potentially the third best player in this entire draft. Besides Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel, it’s possible that Aho ends up third among all players in this draft class in goals.

In four seasons, his worst goal scoring year was 24 in his rookie-year, and he was on pace for 46 goals this year. Aho is an exceptional talent and it would be a shock if he scored less than 30-goals in a season for the next decade.

As great as it is to have Dermott, just think of the the three centers the Leafs could have had: Matthews, Tavares, Aho.

Maybe if the Leafs draft Aho they don’t even sign Tavares because of money restrictions. Matthews and Aho as your two center’s could do more than enough damage and a combination of Matthews-Marner and Aho-Nylander could be two of the greatest duo’s in the NHL.