Depth in picks won't necessarily turn into draft gold for Maple Leafs
Toronto has six picks in next week's draft with the earliest coming at No. 64 overall.
Article content
Dig into that draft depth, Maple Leafs.
Currently with no selection in the 2025 National Hockey League draft until the last pick of the second round, Leafs amateur scouting director Mark Leach and his staff will have to bide their time next weekend.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
Depth in picks won't necessarily turn into draft gold for Maple Leafs Back to video
Barring trades by general manager Brad Treliving, the Leafs are about to embark on a run of three consecutive drafts without a first-round choice. Consider that since 2011, there have been only three drafts that the Leafs didn’t announce the name of a prospect in the first round.
In 2022, Toronto picked Fraser Minten with their first selection at No. 38; in 2021, Matthew Knies was snagged at No. 57 and, in 2019, Nick Robertson was taken at No. 53.
There might be a good prospect available when the Leafs make their first choice at No. 64. Whether they get it right, we’re not going to know for several years.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
As for organizational needs, they’re not really applicable without a first-round pick. Taking the best player available (as deemed by you and your staff) would be the most prudent route.
With this in mind, we take a look forward and a glance back to see where the Leafs stand heading into the draft.
WHERE DO THE LEAFS PICK?
The final order of the draft was set once the Stanley Cup final between the victorious Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers finished on Tuesday night.
The Leafs will have six picks: Nos. 64, 86 (third round), 137 and 153 (fifth round), 185 (sixth round) and 217 (seventh round).
The Leafs have known for a while they weren’t going to have a first-round pick this year, going back to the Kyle Dubas era.
In February 2023, in the trade with the Chicago Blackhawks in which defenceman Jake McCabe was the centrepiece coming to Toronto, a conditional first-round pick in 2025 was sent to the Blackhawks. The pick was top-10 protected and when the Leafs qualified for the playoffs early in April, it became Chicago’s selection. It’s going to be the 25th pick overall.
The choice at 64th came via the Panthers in a swap of picks between the teams last June.
Originally, the Leafs would have had the 57th pick. Now owned by Seattle, the pick has changed teams several times since the Leafs traded a conditional pick to Arizona in February 2022 in a deal that brought defenceman Ilya Lyubushkin to Toronto. The Coyotes had a choice between the Leafs’ third-round pick in 2023 or the second-round pick in ’25 and went with the latter before trading it (now in Utah) to Tampa Bay.
The 86th pick was acquired in the trade last October that sent defenceman Timothy Liljegren to San Jose. The Leafs would have had the 89th pick, but traded it to Anaheim (which then sent it to the New York Rangers in the Chris Kreider trade last week) in a February 2024 swap for forward Kirill Slepets.
The Leafs’ fourth-round pick, which would have been 121st, went to the Minnesota Wild in a three-team trade (including the St. Louis Blues) in February 2023 that saw forwards Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari land in Toronto.
The 137th pick was acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins in March for forward Connor Dewar and defenceman Conor Timmins.
The 153rd pick is the Leafs’ own, as are the 185th and 217th picks.
WHAT IS THE LEAFS’ HISTORY WITH LATER PICKS?
If you have your hopes high for the potential for the Leafs to find greatness in what picks they have, you might want to temper them.
The fact is, it really does become a crapshoot the deeper the draft gets and there’s no player that will be a slam-dunk blue-chipper by the time Toronto gets to No. 64. He might become that, but he won’t be of that ilk next Saturday.
The Leafs have chosen 64th four previous times and got it right once: In 1994, forward Frederik Modin was snapped up by Toronto and played three seasons with the Leafs before he went on to better things in the NHL, winning the Cup with Tampa Bay in 2004. Modin played in 898 NHL games with six teams.
More recently, the Leafs chose defenceman Topi Niemela at 64 in 2020. He doesn’t factor in Toronto’s future. Perhaps that would have been different had Dubas still been in charge.
The best showing the Leafs have in the three times they have had the 86th choice came in 2011, when they took Sudbury Wolves winger Josh Leivo. He scored 42 goals in 265 NHL games with five teams and is coming off a 49-goal season with Ufa of the KHL.
The 64th and 86th picks haven’t borne much NHL fruit in the past 25 years. Since 2000, three players taken 64th — forward Vincent Trocheck (Florida , 2011), defenceman Tyson Barrie (Colorado, 2009) and goalie Jimmy Howard (Detroit, 2003) — made an impact in the NHL.
At 86, you’re looking at defenceman Colton Parayko (St. Louis, 2012) and not much else.
Regarding the later rounds, you can count on two hands the number of players the Leafs have taken since 2000 that made a dent with the team. We don’t include the most recent drafts in that thinking, as those players remain in the developmental stages.
From 2000 to 2018, the Leafs had 63 picks beyond 137th overall.
The best recent example would be forward Pontus Holmberg, chosen 156th in 2018.
You also have forward Pierre Engvall (188th, 2014); forward Andreas Johnsson (202nd, 2013); goalie Garret Sparks (190th, 2011); forward Connor Brown (156th, 2012); defenceman Carl Gunnarsson (189th, 2007); forward Leo Komarov (180th, 2006); defenceman Anton Stralman (216th, 2005) and defenceman Ian White (191st, 2002).
With respect to each one, it’s not a bunch of difference-making all-stars, is it?
The best outlier in Leafs history would be defenceman Tomas Kaberle, chosen 204th in 1996.
We’ll be curious to see what comes of the six-pack of picks that the Leafs own, provided no further trades are made.
We do know that we won’t be able to say whether Leach and his staff was right or wrong on any of them for years to come.
X: @koshtorontosun
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.