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3 Reasons Why Toronto Maple Leafs Don’t Need Their First-Round Pick

By Stephen Nixon

PHILADELPHIA, PA - JUNE 27: William Nylander is selected eighth overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round of the 2014 NHL Draft at the Wells Fargo Center on June 27, 2014 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - JUNE 27: William Nylander is selected eighth overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round of the 2014 NHL Draft at the Wells Fargo Center on June 27, 2014 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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MONTREAL, CANADA – FEBRUARY 12: Jean-Sebastien Giguere #35 of the Toronto Maple Leafs. (Photo by Richard Wolowicz/Getty Images)
MONTREAL, CANADA – FEBRUARY 12: Jean-Sebastien Giguere #35 of the Toronto Maple Leafs. (Photo by Richard Wolowicz/Getty Images) /

#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.

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