The NHL Entry Draft is fast approaching. The Toronto Maple Leafs will have some important decisions to make including whether they want to select Bobby Orr.
Finding the right players to bring to the NHL by scouting teenagers around the globe is not easy feat. The Toronto Maple Leafs will be looking to strike gold with the three draft picks they currently have for the 2021 NHL Entry Draft.
The earliest that the Maple Leafs can make a selection is in the second round this year unless Kyle Dubas makes a trade to move up in the draft.
It’s very difficult to determine who the Leafs will target when their turn come up for the 56th overall pick. It may just be a player who shares the same name (no relation) as the legendary Boston Bruins defenseman, Bobby Orr, who also happens to have once played for the Toronto Marlies.
The Toronto Maple Leafs and Bobby Orr
This Bobby Orr, born in 2003, played his junior hockey in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. It’s not his fault he has one of the worst possible names for a hockey player. You wouldn’t want to have to make it as a baseball player if your parents called you Babe Ruth. Still, this is a player the Leafs should target.
The Saint John Sea Dogs used their fifth round pick in the 2019 QMJHL Entry Draft to get the Beaconsfield, Québec native. However, he returned to his club team to play Midget AAA instead. Recognizing the talent that they had and the value Orr gained, the Sea Dogs flipped him to the Halifax Mooseheads for a second and a fourth round pick in the 2020 draft.
Orr flourished in Halifax. He played all three forward positions but spent most of his time as a first line winger. According to John Tessler with Smaht Scouting, Orr moves well without the puck, giving his teammates great passing options. He plays phenomenally in front of the net, tipping and redirecting pucks and finding proper positioning. Thanks to his strong hockey IQ, Orr’s passing is also done at a high level, with him having the ability to make tape to tape passes through traffic.
Like on offense, Orr’s defensive positioning is also strong as he is generally found playing low risk coverage in his own zone. He also shows great determination to backcheck when his team turns the puck over. That doesn’t mean that the five-foot-eleven forward is a complete player. Orr will need to work on both his stick-handling and forechecking to properly develop into an NHL caliber player.
NHL Central Scouting has Orr ranked as the 76th top North American skater. After recording a respectable 15 goals and 17 assists in 41 games for Halifax, Orr went from not even being listed in the midterm rankings to what could likely be a mid third-round pick. If the Toronto Maple Leafs are interested in acquiring him, this gives them some options.
The Leafs could either use their second round pick to grab Orr or trade down into the third or potentially even fourth round for him. With diamonds in the rough throughout this draft class and no OHL games played this past season, there is great potential for shocking picks throughout both days of the draft. As unlikely as it is, there is even the possibility that Orr drops all the way down to the fifth round where the Leafs already own a draft selection.
If the Maple Leafs were to bring Orr into the organization, after some development, he could become an NHL regular. He already has great instincts, he just needs to refine his game. Orr could become the subject of one of Ryan Hardy’s first projects.
While the Maple Leafs would certainly like to have more picks in the upcoming draft, they will try to make the most out of the ones they do own. Whether Orr becomes one of their selections remains to be seen but there is always hope for success with the addition of new young talent.