The Toronto Maple Leafs have had some pretty successful drafts in the past decade, but they've also missed out on some great talent, albeit in hindsight. Drafting young players is not always easy. For many players getting drafted each year, teams don't know what they're getting until a few years later. It's a very hit-or-miss process, and all a team can do is rely on their scouting department and hope for the best.
Regarding the Toronto Maple Leafs, it's safe to say that Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and Mitch Marner were all hits for the Leafs, minus never making it beyond the second round of the NHL playoffs. Former Leafs GM Gord Stellick joined Jay Rosehill and Nick Alberga on Leafs Morning Take this past Monday, and he talked about how Joe Sakic almost became a Maple Leafs draft pick in the 1987 NHL Draft. The Leafs drafted defenseman Luke Richardson seventh overall instead.
Now, you can comb through many drafts and find surefire players that teams overlooked and wonder why they chose the player that they did instead of the other guy who turned out to be much better. Again, the draft is not an easy thing to get right all the time, and every team ends up with a lot more misses than hits by the time those players reach the NHL.
However, when I heard the Sakic news on Monday, I thought it would be fun to see which players the Leafs have missed out on since the 2015 NHL draft. I will mention who the Leafs selected in each of the first three rounds during each draft and point out who they missed out on as well. Here's a look at players the Leafs could have drafted between 2015 and 2021. It's too early to compare most of the picks from 2022 onwards.