Every year each team in the NHL hopes to have a late-round steal. The Toronto Maple Leafs have had a couple of notable ones in past years. Which are the Best?
There was a total of 217 Picks in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft and odds are that there will be a number of players who will prove they should’ve been selected higher. This year, the Toronto Maple Leafs made three sixth round selections and three seventh round selections, hoping to strike gold late.
Some notable Steals over history include names like Brett Hull, Pavel Datsyuk, Doug Gilmore, and Henrik Lundqvist – not a big deaaaaaaal.
With names like Morgan Rielly, Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Mitch Marner, and Nick Robertson, it seems over the past decade, the Leafs have been putting the past of terrible drafting behind them. In addition to those, there’s been a couple of late-round steals who have proved that they should have been drafted higher.
Often it’s rounds 1, 2, and 3, that are looked at as the primary and most important. Beyond that, often picks are all over the board. For that and the purpose of this list, we will only be ranking players who were selected in the fourth round and beyond.
With that in mind, let’s get into it.