Toronto Maple Leafs 2014 NHL Draft Retrospective

Fourth Pick

At 128th overall in the fifth round, the Leafs went back to the USHL to select powerforward center, Dakota Joshua.

After another year with the Sioux Falls Stampede, Joshua joined Ohio State University. There he had a few up and down seasons before his negotiating rights were dealt to the St. Louis Blues for future considerations in 2019.

Since then, he has spent the past five years working up from the ECHL to an NHL bottom-six forward role with the Vancouver Canucks.

In 184 games played he has scored 33 goals and 31 assists for 64 points. His perseverance is admirable and with the Leafs rumoured to be interested in signing him this off-season, we could soon see a full-circle moment for the 28-year-old.

Fifth Pick

Although not a USHL player, the Leafs used their sixth round, 158th overall selection on USPHL forward Nolan Vesey. Brother of future Leaf, Jimmy Vesey and son of Leafs’ scout Jim Vesey, the Vesey bloodlines run deep in Toronto.

He would spend the next four seasons playing for University of Maine before having his rights sent to the Edmonton Oilers for a conditional seventh.

Vesey would spend the next few seasons bouncing around the ECHL and AHL before signing in the Erste Liga last season, which is a Romanian and Hungarian based professional hockey league.