3 Reasons Why Toronto Maple Leafs Don’t Need Their First-Round Pick
The Toronto Maple Leafs did not win the NHL Draft Lottery and are now without a first-round pick this year.
After losing to the Columbus Blue Jackets in the qualifying series, there was a glimmer of hope for Toronto Maple Leafs fans.
And his name was Alexis Lafreniere.
The projected first-overall draft pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft is very skillful with an NHL comparable to Florida Panthers superstar Jonathan Huberdeau.
After Gary Bettman confirmed every ping-pong ball (that was so weird), eight fan-bases held their breath with hopes of Lafreniere.
Any Leafs fan that said they actually didn’t care if they won the Draft Lottery was lying to themselves because you know Leafs Nation would have gone nuts if their name was called.
With all of the ping-pong balls floating around, the Leafs unfortunately did not win, but instead the New York Rangers were victorious.
As the 11th seed in the qualifying series, there wasn’t a ton of controversy towards the Rangers winning the NHL Draft Lottery, compared to if the Pittsburgh Penguins, Edmonton Oilers or Leafs won.
Either way, the fact that Toronto was unsuccessful with the NHL Draft Lottery now means that the team will be without a first-round pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft.
Although it would have been great to draft 13th overall, here are three reasons why it doesn’t matter that the team has a first-round pick.
#3. The 13th Overall Selection Will Not Change Your Franchise
If you look at the 13th pick from every NHL Draft, there aren’t a ton of players that stick out.
Besides Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who was brilliant for the Anaheim Ducks, the next best player is Dustin Brown.
Brown is a dependable 15-20 goal scorer for the Los Angeles Kings and was a key piece on their Stanley Cup winning teams, but he’s a replaceable player.
Once you get outside of the top-five of an NHL Draft, everything starts to become luck.
There’s no doubt that you could find a really great player with the 13th overall pick, but more often than not, they’re not going to be anybody special. They’re going to be a similar player that you could have drafted with a third or fourth-round pick.
There’s a reason why the Pittsburgh Penguins have gone so many years without their first-round selection. When it’s outside of the top-five, you’re better off trading it for an asset that you know is a good player.
This isn’t only true in hockey but in the National Football League as well. The New England Patriots are an excellent football program year-after-year because they typically trade outside of the first-round and compile picks.
Sure, getting the first-overall pick would have been awesome, but at the same time, the Toronto Maple Leafs depth up-front is already established. Having the 13th overall selection is not going to change the future of this franchise and whoever Carolina selects with that pick most likely isn’t going to get inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, so no need to worry, Leafs fans.
#2. The Leafs Got Rid of the Patrick Marleau Contract
Kyle Dubas found himself in a tough situation when he was named general manager of the Leafs in May, 2018.
Marleau had signed a three-year deal with the previous regime and at $6.25 million per season, there was no way the team could afford to keep him in that final year of the contract.
His game was diminishing and although he was a great leader and beloved by the Leafs, in order to keep Auston Matthews, William Nylander, John Tavares and Mitch Marner, Marleau had to leave.
So what did the Leafs do to get rid of him?
Well, they shipped him to the Carolina Hurricanes with a first-round pick. Dubas was criticized for including a first-round pick with this trade, but at the same time, what was he supposed to do?
I’m sure he talked to every single team in the NHL trying to find a better deal, but there were only so many teams that had the cap-space to do this trade.
With a willing partner, the Hurricanes drove a hard-bargain by asking for a first-round pick, but it was in the Leafs best interest to do so. A first-round pick is valuable, but the Leafs made it top-10 protected to at least give them a chance at the first-overall pick, had they actually won it.
If Dubas had not made the pick top-10 protected, it would have been another Phil Kessel situation and the trade could have been abysmal. However, they needed to get rid of Marleau and a 13th overall pick to do so isn’t the end of the world.
#1. You Can Find Just As Much Talent in the Mid-Round
Getting the number-one draft pick is going to change your team but the 13th overall selection will not. As mentioned before, you can find just as much talent late as you can with that selection and the Leafs have shown this to be true.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have four players on the current roster that they drafted outside of the first-round:
- Andreas Johnsson (7th Round, 2013 NHL Entry Draft)
- Pierre Engvall (7th Round, 2014 NHL Entry Draft)
- Travis Dermott (2nd Round, 2015 NHL Entry Draft)
- Nick Robertson (2nd Round, 2019 NHL Entry Draft)
Not only do they have four players they personally drafted outside of the first-round playing on the team, but they have six other everyday players that they didn’t draft who went outside the first-round:
- Jake Muzzin (5th Round, 2007 NHL Entry Draft)
- Tyson Barrie (3rd Round, 2009 NHL Entry Draft)
- Justin Holl (2nd Round, 2010 NHL Entry Draft)
- Zach Hyman (5th Round, 2010 NHL Entry Draft)
- Alex Kerfoot (5th Round, 2012 NHL Entry Draft)
- Freddie Andersen (3rd Round, 2012 NHL Entry Draft)
Next. Should The Leafs Have Signed John Tavares?. dark
There’s more than enough ways to find talent and as we just discussed it doesn’t have to be through a first-round pick. The 13th overall selection is not going to change your team, so the Leafs will be fine.