Over the years, the Toronto Maple Leafs have meticulously drafted many promising prospects with sincere hopes that, some day, they could actually help the team in one way or another.
For some of those prospects, like Morgan Rielly, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander to name a few, they have evolved and became an integral part of the Toronto Maple Leafs roster for many years. Whereas for many others that were less fortunate, they did not end up lasting long enough to stay within the organization to provide the potential impact that was expected of them.
However, there have been a select few of those castoffs that have managed to find some level of success after leaving the Maple Leafs organization. In fact, some had even gone on to make significant contributions with their new teams in helping them become a winner. As a result, had the Leafs held onto them a little longer, things could have been a lot more different in their perennial quest for the Stanley Cup.
Here, we will take a look at four players that the Maple Leafs actually gave up on just a little too soon within this part of the century. And just to the luck of the Leafs, these players ended up being key pieces on their new teams, with some even leading them to the elusive Stanley Cup.
With the surprising trades by the Leafs of both of their young defensemen in Rasmus Sandin and Timothy Liljegren in recent years, hopefully they don’t end up on this distinguished list in the not-so-distant future as well. Otherwise, the Maple Leafs could be regretting the lost as much as some of these precious talents that they once had a firm grasp of.