Did You Know? – Toronto Maple Leafs NHL Entry Draft History

Looking for some random bit of information on the QuantHockey website, I went down the rabbit hole of exploring the Toronto Maple Leafs draft history.  In doing so, I came across a few items that I have to admit made me exclaim “I did not know that!”

In the spirit of sharing (and sharing is caring, my dear readers), here is what I discovered about who and how the Toronto Maple Leafs have drafted over the years.

First, the Leafs are pretty good at drafting future NHL head coaches and general managers.  Among them, we have Ken Holland (1975, 12th round), Bruce Boudreau (1975, 3rd round), Randy Carlyle (1976, 2nd round), Joel Quenneville (1978, 2nd round), Jim Benning (1981, 1st round), Jack Capuano (1985, 5th round), Luke Richardson (1987, 1st round), and Peter DeBoer (1988, 12th round).

The NHL Entry Draft began in 1963, and in the 60 years since, the Toronto Maple Leafs have picked first only two times – Austin Matthews was chosen in 2016 and Wendel Clark in 1985.  The Leafs have picked in the top ten 28 times.  Only Ernie Moser (picked 9th in 1969) never made it to the NHL.

Did You Know? – Toronto Maple Leafs NHL Entry Draft History

Their last six picks in the “top 10” category have turned out not too badly – Matthews (1st in 2016), Mitch Marner (4th in 2015), William Nylander (8th in 2014), Morgan Rielly (5th in 2012), Nazem Kadri (7th in 2009) and Luke Schenn (5th in 2008).

In the 2020 Entry Draft, Toronto had a total of 12 picks, tied with the Detroit Red Wings for the most picks out of 31 teams (there were 7 rounds).  Of the 217 players drafted, just over 23% have played at least one game in the NHL.  None of the 12 Maple Leafs’ picks have yet achieved that milestone.

While Toronto has done a decent job of identifying NHLers near the top of the draft, their ability to find diamonds in the rough has been dismal.  Here are the top ten “stars” drafted in later rounds (after round 2) in Maple Leafs draft history, (“stars” defined totally objectively by me):

Mike Palmateer (1974, 5th round); Tomas Kaberle (1996, 8th round).  That’s only two.  That’s all, folks. There are no other stars.  Certainly, there have been quite a few decent players (James Reimer, Stewart Gavin, Connor Brown, etc), but nobody whose name elicits a reaction of “that guy was awesome”.

Rounds 3 through 12 (depending on the year), 60 years, 406 picks, and only two star players.  In contrast, in rounds 1 and 2, the Toronto Maple Leafs have drafted 104 players, 21 of whom developed into stars.

This suggests that much of the money spent on scouting (and Toronto is rumoured to spend more than any team in the league) is being wasted.  Perhaps Brad Treliving should be open to trading draft picks (not 1st or 2nd rounders) to fill in the holes in the roster.

Either that, or bundling lower picks to acquire one higher pick.  In any case, something needs to change within Toronto’s draft strategy, because what they’re doing now is not working.