Toronto Maple Leafs 2015 Draft Retrospective
Fourth Overall - Mitch Marner
Heading into the 2015 draft, the first two picks were essentially etched in stone.
It was the Connor McDavid draft for a reason and he was the consensus number one pick with Jack Eichel being seen as a great consolation prize for any team tanking.
After them is where the draft really opened up and the Leafs seemed to have quite a few viable options available to them.
Like the Nylander draft, some wanted bigger body powerforward types in Pavel Zacha or Lawson Crouse. Others wanted a defenseman in Noah Hanifin, Ivan Provorov, and Zach Werenski.
Reportedly, even Leafs’ coach Mike Babcock attempted to sway the draft decision away from Marner.
The Leafs braintrust ultimately chose Mitch Marner from the London Knights at fourth overall with Mark Hunter fittingly announcing the pick and nine years later, it was undoubtedly the correct call.
He currently sits second only behind Connor McDavid for points of the 2015 NHL Draft class. In 576 games played he has scored 195 goals and 639 points and is firmly on track to be a hall of famer and go down as one of the best Toronto Maple Leafs of all-time.
Stats from nhl.com and eliteprospects.com.