Top 5 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL Entry Draft Busts of All-Time

#3. Tyler Biggs

The Toronto Maple Leafs traded up (more on this later) to acquire the 22nd overall pick so they could select Tyler Biggs.

Leading up to the draft he was ranked in the top-15 by TSN’s Bob McKenzie, so the pick looked like a steal at the time. However, his draft year Biggs ranked fifth in terms of points per game on the USNTDP for U-18 players. In 55 games he scored 19 goals and 12 assists for 31 points and 161 penalty minutes. As a 6-2 205lbs power forward, his main selling point was that he was a mean and tough player who had a high skill level to compliment his game.

In the following two seasons, Biggs would play in the NCAA and the OHL. In 2011-12, in 37 games with Miami University (in Ohio) he would score nine goals and eight assists for 17 points while getting penalized for 63 minutes. The next season he would take his talents to the OHL’s Oshawa Generals where he 26 goals and 27 assists for 53 points in 60 games and only hit 55 penalty minutes.

After his junior career had finished, Biggs found himself playing for the Leafs’ AHL affiliate the Toronto Marlies and briefly for their ECHL affiliate the Orlando Solar Bears. Over those two seasons, Biggs played in 104 games for the Marlies, scoring nine goals and five assists for 14 points, while racking up 95 penalty minutes. In his brief ECHL stint, he scored at a much better rate, scoring four goals and two assists for six points in eight games, with 16 minutes in penalties.

That summer, Biggs was included in the blockbuster deal that sent Phil Kessel to the Pittsburgh Penguins. He would finish out his ELC with their affiliate the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, playing in 11 games and picking up a goal and assist for two points and 11 penalty minutes. After this, he would sign minor league contracts with the Kalamazoo Wings of the ECHL, playing 126 games with 35 goals and 45 assists for 80 points 120 pims. He would also sign with the Nottingham Panthers of the EIHL, racking up nine points in 24 games in England. Without an official announcement, Biggs has now retired from professional hockey since last playing in 2018-19.

As I mentioned before, to put salt in the wound, Leafs GM Brian Burke traded up to draft Tyler Biggs. He traded the 30th overall pick (Rickard Rakell) and the 39th overall pick (John Gibson) to take him at 22nd. Some other notable players taken in the next few spots were: Philip Danault and Vladislav Namestnikov.