Re-Drafting Toronto Maple Leafs History: 2011 NHL Entry Draft

The 2011 NHL Entry Draft will haunt the Toronto Maple Leafs for the rest of time.

After trading for Phil Kessel, the Toronto Maple Leafs were once again without their top-pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.

The Leafs should have been selecting ninth overall, but instead they had the 22nd and 25th overall draft picks.

Although the team had two first round picks, they somehow managed to screw everything up.

In one of the worst Brian Burke trades as G.M. of the Toronto Maple Leafs (only the Kessel trade was worse), Burke sent the 30th and 39th overall selections to the Anaheim Ducks for the 22nd pick in this draft.

Doesn’t sound like that big of a deal right? Since the team already had the 25th overall selection, wouldn’t you rather have the 22nd and 25th picks instead of the 25th, 30th and 39th picks?

Well that depends on who you actually pick.

As outlined numerous times on this website, the Leafs ended up selecting Tyler Biggs with that 22nd overall selection and the Ducks picked up Rickard Rakell and John Gibson.

No matter how many times I write it, it doesn’t get easier to comprehend how awful this selection was by Brian Burke.

As the Anaheim Ducks selected a future 30-goal scorer and number-one goaltender, the Leafs were stuck with a player who couldn’t even turn into an American Hockey League lifer.

I kind of feel bad for Biggs that he’s the brunt of ever joke by being selected with this pick by the Leafs, but he never should have been a first round pick in the first place.

It’s kind of similar to the narrative of Anthony Bennett in the NBA, where these players have been painted in a bad-light, although it’s not their fault a team thought they were better than they actually were.

Although the Toronto Maple Leafs screwed up their picks, they’re not the only team that would have liked a re-do.

Here is a re-draft of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.

2011 NHL Entry Re-Draft

#1. Edmonton Oilers

Actual: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

Re-Draft: Nikita Kucherov

This is the second installment of a three-year streak of the Edmonton Oilers drafting first overall in the NHL Entry Draft.

And once again, they selected the wrong player!

The Tampa Bay Lightning deserve a ton of credit for selecting Kucherov with the 58th overall selection in this draft, originally. Having only played eight games in the KHL with 0 goals heading into his draft year, it’s not like he was turning heads.

Also, he was a relatively small-guy at 5-foot-11, 180 pounds, so it makes sense why scouts didn’t see him as a first-round selection.

However, once Kucherov moved overseas and started playing for the Lightning, he’s been a goal-scoring machine.

He’s been a consistent 30-plus goal scorer, with his best season coming in the 2018-19 season when he scored 41 goals, including 128 points, which helped him win an Art Ross Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award and Hart Memorial Trophy.

Kucherov currently leads this draft class with 547 points and is a no-brainer first-overall selection in this re-draft.

#2. Colorado Avalanche

Actual: Gabriel Landeskog

Re-Draft: Mark Scheifele

The Avalanche made a great selection by originally drafting Gabriel Landeskog, but Mark Scheifele is the second best player in this draft.

If anyone had the opportunity of watching Scheifele in junior, it was an absolute privilege. The fact that he fell to the seventh selection in this draft is a joke, compared to some of the players that got selected over here.

Scheifele is your optimal centre in the National Hockey League. He is obsessed with the sport of hockey and his knowledge and love for the game will keep him motivated to be one of the best players in the league.

His career took a little time to blossom, but over the past few years, he’s been a point-per-game player, including a 2018-19 season where he scored 84 points in 82 games, which included 38 goals.

Scheifele has developed into one of the best two-way centre’s in the NHL and is a true leader on a very good Winnipeg Jets team.

Nathan MacKinnon and Nazem Kadri and are a nice one-two centre combination, but MacKinnon and Scheifele would be incredible.

#3. Florida Panthers

Actual: Jonathan Huberdeau

Re-Draft: Gabriel Landeskog

Although Landeskog is going later than he did in the real draft, this shouldn’t be a discredit to him.

Any team in the NHL would be lucky to have him, but Scheifele and Kucherov are just a little bit better than him.

With the third selection in this re-draft, the Florida Panthers would have loved to select Landeskog with this pick.

Landeskog is a natural born leader having been the captain of the Kitchener Rangers during junior, and then became (at the time), the youngest captain in NHL history when the Avalanche gave him that honor in 2012.

Currently in his seventh NHL season, Landeskog has averaged 20-goals per season, but it’s his two-way ability that has made him so special. He not only has a strong ability to score every night, but his play-making skills are just as good.

He’s also not afraid to hit or fight, which makes him an awesome leader for the Colorado Avalanche.

#4. New Jersey Devils

Actual: Adam Larsson

Re-Draft: Johnny Gaudreau

You could have made an argument that Gaudreau would go ahead of Landeskog but that sand-paper element that Landeskog brings every night can be more valuable than goals.

However, “Johnny Hockey’s” ability to rack up points is incredibly impressive.

Originally drafted 104th overall in this draft, there’s nobody that scouts wrongly predicted more than Gaudreau.

At 5-foot-9, 165 pounds, scouts clearly didn’t think he was big enough to play in the NHL. Back in 2011, small players were playing in the NHL, but there was still a stigma towards whether or not you could excel at that height and weight.

Gaudreau has shown that size doesn’t matter and proved all his critics wrong, as he’s been one of the most dynamic players in the league the past few seasons.

Gaudreau narrowly missed out on the 100-point club in the 2018-19 season finishing with 99 points, which included 36 goals. He’s been the MVP of the Calgary Flames and has been one half of one of the best duos in the NHL, paired up with Sean Monahan most nights.

For a New Jersey Devils team that has been irrelevant since making the Stanley Cup Finals in 2012, they could have used the Salem, New Jersey native of Gaudreau to help make their team marketable to fans and sell more tickets.

#5. New York Islanders

Actual: Ryan Strome

Re-Draft: John Gibson

The first goaltender off the board in this draft goes to the New York Islanders and John Gibson.

In the early half of the 2010s, the Islanders goaltending was mediocre at best, led by Evgeni Nabokov. It wasn’t until the tandem of Jaroslav Halak and Thomas Greiss came in where the Islanders had steady goaltending.

Although Strome has had a nice year with the New York Rangers, he hasn’t turned into the type of player that the Islanders were expecting with the fifth overall pick.

With an 106 point season heading into his draft year, his stock definitely rose, as the Islanders thought Strome would turn into the same play-maker in the NHL, that he was with the Niagara Ice Dogs.

Although he’s clearly an NHL caliber player, in hindsight, the team would have been better off with the best goaltender in this draft class.

With a career 2.53 GAA and 0.918 SV % in 287 career NHL games, Gibson has been reliable for the Anaheim Ducks and could have been the goalie of the future for the New York Islanders had they had the ability to re-draft.

#6. Ottawa Senators

Actual: Mika Zibanejad

Re-Draft: Dougie Hamilton

Although he’s currently on his third team in eight years, Hamilton is an exceptional defenseman.

With a career Corsi For percentage of 55.6%, the advanced stats guru’s love Hamilton’s game.

Not only are his advanced stats good, but he’s also able to contribute offensively, as he just had his sixth consecutive season of scoring 10-plus goals.

Defensemen take longer to develop and Hamilton has turned into the player that everyone expected him to become at 27-years-old.

Injuries plagued his 2019-20 season, but in a full healthy 82-game season, Hamilton was on-pace for 24 goals and 70 points, which would have put him in Norris Trophy conversation.

If Hamilton is able to stay healthy for the next few years, I’d expect a lot from him moving forward and it wouldn’t be surprising if he is indeed a Norris Trophy candidate a few times before his career is over.

#7. Winnipeg Jets

Actual: Mark Scheifele

Re-Draft: Sean Couturier

Couturier may not be the flashiest player in the NHL, but he’s a player that every team in the NHL could use.

Having originally been selected 8th overall in this draft, Couturier slides up to the 7th overall selection for the Winnipeg Jets.

With this selection, they’re getting a player similar to their original pick in Scheifele, except with a little less skill.

Couturier has been known as a great penalty-killer and shut-down centre over his career, but over the past few seasons, he’s shown that he can score. After a 31-goal campaign in the 2017-18 season, he showed it wasn’t a fluke by following it up with a 33-goal season in 2018-19.

His 2019-20 season dipped a little bit as he was only on pace for 25 goals, but that’s still a great year for almost any player.

Even as Couturier’s goal-scoring has excelled, his defensive play has stayed just as strong, as he’ll most likely be nominated for the Frank J. Selke Trophy once again this season.

#8. Philadelphia Flyers

Actual: Sean Couturier

Re-Draft: Jonathan Huberdeau

As the original third overall selection in this draft, Huberdeau has really started to excel over the last three seasons.

Paired with Aleksander Barkov every night, the duo is one of the best young tandems in the NHL and Barkov has really helped his game flourish.

Huberdeau had a break-out 2018-19 season with 92 points and was on-pace to hit the same mark if the NHL season hadn’t been shortened due to COVID-19.

The Philadelphia Flyers originally selected Couturier with this pick, who we just talked about, but they would have still been in a great spot with Huberdeau.

Huberdeau could have fit in quite well on a line with Claude Giroux and his career could have taken off even earlier if that was the case.

Either way, the Flyers original selection and re-draft would have gone quite nicely for them.

#9. Boston Bruins (From Toronto Maple Leafs)

Actual: Dougie Hamilton

Re-Draft: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

If the Toronto Maple Leafs never traded for Phil Kessel, they could have ended up with the ninth selection in this draft, or an even better pick.

Instead, the team ended up gift-wrapping Dougie Hamilton to them, instead of using their draft picks to rebuild.

It hurts even more that the Bruins got this selection from the Leafs, but it is what is is.

In re-draft, the Bruins original draft pick would have already been off the board, and instead they  would have be given the opportunity to draft the original number-one overall pick: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

Besides Connor McDavid, the Edmonton Oilers and number-one overall draft picks haven’t worked out as well as they hoped. Nail Yakupov (2012) is already out of NHL, whereas Taylor Hall (2010) was traded and proceeded to win the Hart Trophy in New Jersey. Ouch.

Nugent-Hopkins hasn’t been a bust, but in a re-draft, there were eight other players the Oilers probably should have selected instead of him.

With the ninth overall pick, Nugent-Hopkins is still a great selection for the Bruins here. He’s not first-overall worthy in this draft, but he’s still fifth in overall points with 443 points in his draft class.

On a team with Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, Nugent-Hopkins doesn’t have to be “the guy”, so he’s currently in a great spot in Edmonton as the typical second-line centre, but could have been in an even better spot if he were drafted to a veteran Boston Bruins team, where he could take his time to learn and develop.

#10. Minnesota Wild

Actual: Jonas Brodin

Re-Draft: Mika Zibanejad

The Ottawa Senators made a great selection picking Mika Zibanejad sixth overall in the original draft and in a re-draft, the Wild would much rather have had Zibanejad over Brodin.

No disrespect to Brodin, as he’s played 555 career NHL games, but Zibanejad is an absolute sniper.

The only reason Zibanejad falls to number 10 in this re-draft is because he’s only broke out in the last two seasons and I need to see a little bit more. If we did this re-draft after everyone’s career is over, there’s a real possibility that he’s a top-five selection.

In an 82-game season, Zibanejad was on-pace for 59 (!) goals this season. Paired with Artemi Panarin, the tandem found serious chemistry and Zibanejad turned into that player that the Ottawa Senators hoped for when they originally drafted him sixth overall.

The duo of Zibanejad and Panarin are locked up for another two years minimum, so it’ll be interesting to see if they can keep up their pace, but I do think it’s possible.

Panarin’s play-making has helped Zibanejad so much this year that it wouldn’t be a shock if he hit 40 goals again, if not 50 goals next season and beyond.