The Toronto Maple Leafs System Both Incredible and Underrated
The Toronto Maple Leafs System Is Very Strong, Very Underrated
The Toronto Maple Leafs system is incredible, and it’s also very underrated.
What makes it incredible is that even though they haven’t picked highly in years, their system includes 10 players who are reasonable bets to make the NHL, and most of them have incredible upside. Given the context, this is impressive.
Unable to draft the slam-dunk stars at the top of the draft, the Leafs created an ideal player and then continually sought him out.
This ideal player is, first and foremost, smart. Hockey Sense. Thinking the Game. A High Hockey IQ. Every single player in the Leafs top ten is identified as such.
It makes sense: players who are obviously talented will get snapped up early. Players with talent and flaws are who you are left to sift through for your selections. But you know everyone there is reasonably talented.
But if you have two equally talented players, you can train, coach, teach and develop the smarter play a lot easier. Thus, it makes sense to seek out this particular skill.
Secondly, the Leafs take players who are hard workers. Again, the same logic applies: if you have two equally talented players, take the one who seems to be the harder worker.
If you are able to take players who are BOTH hard workers and intelligent, then over time, you should start to show a lot more success at picking players than average. We don’t yet know if this will work. I can sit here and say I think it will, but I’m risking nothing to do so. And I run a dedicated Leafs sight. You should take my pro-Leafs positions with a grain of salt.
But not a whole canister.
I’m not sitting here trying to tell you that Alex Steeves will be a superstar, or that anyone in the Leafs system is the next Braydon Point, or that anyone here is as good as the Duck’s fifth best prospect.
All I am trying to say is that instead of making the draft into a total crapshoot, the Toronto Maple Leafs have come up with a way to try and beat the system. So far, their non-name-brand Top 10 looks impressive, in that every single players is offensively talented, smart, and extremely hardworking.
But that’s it. Still, I think optimism is warranted.
Thinking About What the Leafs Have
Google the scouting reports on Kokkonen, Steeves, Knies, Robertson or any other member of the Leafs system, and you’ll read that player shows extreme dedication, and is a very hard worker.
The Leafs believe that you can acquire grinders, checkers, big players, and role players in a multitude of ways, so you don’t have to draft them.
Instead, they focus on finding smart, hard working players who are offensively talented.
This is eventually going to yield players, but it’s a strategy that has only been in place since June of 2018, which is four years and three months ago, or five drafts.
From the 2018 draft, both the first two picks are now NHL regulars. Sandin might be a star, while Durzi is good for LA and got the Leafs Muzzin. Pontus Holmberg could play in the NHL right now. Filip Kral, Mac Hollowell and Semyon Der-Arguchintsev are still viable prospects who are good AHL players and might still make the NHL.
I think it’s safe to say that Kyle Dubas’ first draft as the boss was a strong one, especially considering their first pick was 29th overall. Any team would be happy with three NHL Players (one a likely star) and three decent lottery tickets from any draft.
Most people think the Leafs system is crap. That’s OK. You can’t expect people in large numbers to come around on anything until the proof is indisputable (and even then…).
The Leafs system should be underrated. No one knows how these guys will turn out, no one has ever tried to do what the Leafs are doing, and so there is no history of it working.
But the Leafs have at last two players are not longshots to be stars: Niemella and Robertson.
Nine of their top ten prospects (Alex Steeves is the odd man out) have star potential.
They have players – Joey Anderson, Pontus Holberg, just to name two – who are almost certain to be NHL players eventually, and who don’t even make this list.
The list, as a whole, however, is very impressive because the Leafs have built a strong system with a ton of talent using just players drafted outside the first round. (Only one players, Rodion Amirov, is a first round selection).
Of course they won’t get any praise for this because they shouldn’t. They are just doing their job, and it hasn’t even been shown to work yet. However, it does look like it is starting to.
dark. Next. Evaluating the Leafs Roster With Grades
The levels at which Sandin, Liljegren and Robertson have been able to play at in the NHL gives a strong indication that this strategy will work (all are smart, competitive, talented), as is the returns from the 2018 draft so far.
Kyle Dubas has set the Leafs up for years with his strong drafting, and I can’t wait to see it come to fruition so he can get his due.