Toronto Maple Leafs Finally Graduating Talent Taken In Later Rounds

Filip Kral is the latest name on a growing list of Toronto Maple Leafs later round draft picks that have eventually made their way to the NHL.

With his debut in the Toronto Maple Leafs’ defeat to the Los Angeles Kings last week, Filip Kral is another player taken after the third round of the Draft that has worked hard in the minors and earned his spot.

While it’s becoming more of a trend across the league, what with a flat salary cap and the need to draft and develop cheap replacement players, it’s still an impressive feat for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

They have now seen eight players since 2013 that were drafted after the third round play at least one game in the NHL.

Toronto Maple Leafs Finding Talent In Later Rounds

Among the names in that class are Andreas Johnsson, Pierre Engvall, Carl Grundstrom, Adam Brooks and Nick Abruzzese.

Granted, in the case of Johnsson, Grundstrom and Brooks, they’re no longer part of the Toronto Maple Leafs organization; it does speak to a development system that is finding talent later in the Draft.

Czech defenseman Filip Kral was a fifth round pick (149th overall) in 2018 that realistically would’ve had limited expectations as to whether he might one day play for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

After all, the team drafted both Timothy Liljegren the year prior and both Rasmus Sandin and Sean Durzi in Kral’s draft year – it’s safe to say it was always going to be an uphill struggle even to make one game in the Leafs line-up.

Kral eventually found himself thrown in at the deep-end, albeit alongside veteran blue-liner Mark Giordano.

He saw penalty-killing time on his NHL debut (versus Los Angeles) and generally kept things calm in just shy of 12 minutes of ice-time, backing it up with a slightly more angsty 8 minutes versus Anaheim.

Another draft pick not from the first two to three rounds bodes well for a Toronto Maple Leafs team that will want to keep pushing internally-developed, low-cost options onto their NHL roster, such is their cap situation.

In recent years, the team has traded away first round picks and thus it has become ever more vital that they make smart moves in the second round and beyond.

You only need to glance at the Tampa Bay Lightning’s draft history in recent years to realize that having some third, fourth and in the case of Ondrej Palat, seventh-round picks hit is vital to ongoing success.

While it’s not to suggest that Filip Kral is some hidden gem that the Toronto Maple Leafs have suddenly unearthed, it’s still very positive that later round picks are now being routinely developed to the point of being viable NHL options, even if it’s only at the lower end of the roster.

The Toronto Maple Leafs also debuted a sixth-round pick (156th overall) from 2018 in Pontus Holmberg this year as well,, while Ty Voit, their 2021 fifth-round pick (153rd overall) is lighting it up thus far in the OHL with 24 points in 12 games.

The scouting staff seem to be getting it right more often than not; here’s hoping that sooner or later it pays off.