Could’ve Had ‘Em: Toronto Maple Leafs Recent Draft Mistakes

Toronto Maple Leafs Errors

Now for the painful part: who the Toronto Maple Leafs missed out on.

In 2015, the following players were all still on the board at the time of the Andrew Nielsen pick: Sidney Crosby’s linemate, Dominik Simon, Columbus defensemen Vladislav Gavrikov and Markus Nutivaara, Calgary’s Andrew Mangiapane, and, oh yeah, Stanley Cup Champion Anthony Cirelli. What do the Leafs have to show from this draft, post-Dermott pick? 39 games of Dmytro Timashov and a big “maybe” in Jesper Lindgren.

In 2016, you likely already know that Yegor Korshkov was the first pick and Chicago’s budding star Alex DeBrincat was chosen eight picks later, but just a little further down that list, you’ll find Philadelphia’s starting goalie Carter Hart. Just absolutely aggravating to look back on now. There’s one other player the Leafs missed out on from the late rounds of this draft who is a bonafide NHL’er, New Jersey’s Jesper Bratt, who has 100 points in 185 games played.

2017 is harder to judge, very few players from this draft class (excluding first-rounders and Dubas’ preferred 4th round choice Emil Bemstrom) have made the jump to the big leagues yet. The only choice I’ll openly criticize right now is Eemeli Rasanen. Despite his 6’7 frame, he doesn’t project to be much of an NHL player, he’s currently being bounced around teams in Europe after leaving a very promising career at the North American major-junior level. Michael DiPietro, a Vancouver goalie prospect with a high ceiling, and Morgan Geekie, a Carolina center with 3 goals in 2 NHL games, were both still on the board at the time.

Even the most hardcore Hunter fans have to be pretty disappointed with the lack of results.

In comparison, of the players drafted by Dubas in his two years so far, two of them (Sandin and Robertson) have likely graduated to the NHL full-time. Four others: Semyon Der-Arguchintsev, Mac Hollowell, Filip Kral, and Mikhail Abramov have signed entry-level contracts.

Kral and Hollowell are staples on the Marlies right now, Der-Arguchintsev will graduate to the Marlies or Newfoundland Growlers to continue developing after a very successful junior career, and Abramov was just named captain of the Victoriaville Tigres in the QMJHL.

In addition to those players, several other draft picks are thriving on their respective teams, particularly Nick Abruzzese and Mikko Kokkonen, I’d expect to see both put pen to paper very soon on rookie contracts.

Like I said at the top, drafting good players, especially in late rounds, is really hard. But even with that, it’s painfully obvious that Mark Hunter was not good at his job, and part of the Toronto Maple Leafs current struggles are a direct result of absolutely dismal drafting that prioritized size over skill in most instances.