Confirmed with Link: Leafs hire Mark Leach from the Stars as their new director of amateur scouting

[ULF_55]

Burke would hate him.

All his picks were Euro's this year.

NHL Records

records.nhl.com

 

[robertmac43]

This is awesome, Dallas continues to get meaningful players out of the later rounds.

If we can hit on a few more of those types of picks we will be laughing.

 

[Stephen]

This is awesome, Dallas continues to get meaningful players out of the later rounds.

If we can hit on a few more of those types of picks we will be laughing.

One nitpick. Dallas doesn't actually seem to get that much juice out of the later rounds, but they sure crank them out of the ballpark with their late firsts and second rounders.

 

[TheMadHatTrick]

One nitpick. Dallas doesn't actually seem to get that much juice out of the later rounds, but they sure crank them out of the ballpark with their late firsts and second rounders.

On the plus side, most of our late round finds were Bergman specials (Engvall, Stalberg, Johnsson, Gunnarsson, Komarov, Holmberg, Stralman, Hildeby) and he's still here.

 

[ULF_55]

One nitpick. Dallas doesn't actually seem to get that much juice out of the later rounds, but they sure crank them out of the ballpark with their late firsts and second rounders.

It helps when you actually have picks in the first and second round.

 

[DraftSchmaft]

Keep saying it.

Shanny stays.

When it comes to "suit" hires he will always aim for the best (one of the) hire available in the moment.

 

[Stephen]

Keep saying it.

Shanny stays.

When it comes to "suit" hires he will always aim for the best (one of the) hire available in the moment.

I dunno what Shanahan’s future holds but I think his presence as a former superstar is valuable in those board room environments and that goes a long way.

If Mats Sundin was more hockey involved it would be amazing to have him take over for Shanny, be our Sakic equivalent, former star player shaping the franchise.

 

[Menzinger]

I dunno what Shanahan’s future holds but I think his presence as a former superstar is valuable in those board room environments and that goes a long way.

If Mats Sundin was more hockey involved it would be amazing to have him take over for Shanny, be our Sakic equivalent, former star player shaping the franchise.

Pelley flat out talked about what Shanny did as a player in Detroit. So you're not wrong.

I'd love to have Mats back in any sort of formal role.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Dallas is among the best best, if not the best drafting team for close to a decade so any hire from them is a great hire, plus he was with Detroit from 1994-2013 when they were the class of the NHL so this man has an elite track record.

I look forward to seeing what he can do here especially considering he has very few picks, at least this year, It's not so bad after you get to 2026 because at least they have their 2026 1st, unless somehow their pick is top 10 this year.

Baring MASSIVE injury that's extremely unlikely so the best pick he has this year is a 2025 Florida 2nd and let's be realistic chances are he doesn't have that because chances are that's gone at the deadline, as long as Matthews is a Leaf I don't think there will be many picks made.

But to be fair so far Treliving hasn't traded any 1st round picks, well he did but he still drafted in the 1st round he just moved down.

Let's see what Mr Leach can do

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Great analysis... complain about reaching for picks, get asked who he reached on, then deflect because you know your post was idiotic.

Bravo.

Cowan was considered a massive reach, to be fair Cowan appears to be trending in the right direction, doesn't change the fact that it was considered a massive reach

 

[Mckay]

Cowan was considered a massive reach, to be fair Cowan appears to be trending in the right direction, doesn't change the fact that it was considered a massive reach

So are you advocating to not employ any scouts and just pick using Central Scouting's list?

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

can you just please stop. like seriously stop. Like - it's okay if you don't like these people - but this is just so full of nonsense. you don't have to kick someone down just to praise someone. You didn't even need to go into all of that.


First of all I will note, that in your whole "we're dumpster diving" statement you didn't mention or indicate that we also had people from London. You know. Mark Hunter and how he was the one who completely rebuilt our drafting team. And you were fond of that. And when the whole Lamoriello thing happened - you wanted Hunter. So were we dumpster diving then? or is it different because you like London and Hunter?

Is Pittsburgh & New Jersey dumpster diving because they Hired Dubas and Keefe. Are you also ignoring the fact that Keefe actually developed a lot of the players on the team currently at the Marlies level?

you have to get the experience somewhere. I will always maintain it was not wrong of Shanahan to get the talent that he got (high end quality talent that other NHL teams wanted by the way) and incorporate into the organization. It wasn't wrong to also have that mentality. to train/develop quality higher ends, they get jobs in other organizations - and then we have a really great connection back to them. it's called a Network. Dubas's downfall wasn't because he didn't have enough experience - or he came from the Soo. it's because he thought was smarter than everyone else. That's not a "lack of experience" thing that's just HUMAN. NATURE thing. we've seen that play out countless times here especially, but around the league.

It's also extremely rude not to mention their names. No matter how much I don't like Burke. I don't pretend to be all smart and cute and mention him by anything else but his name. this isn't the first time that's been stated to you. but it really should be the last. it's not cute or coy when you trash someone without mentioning their name. it's childish and dumb.

Yes Pittsburgh and New Jersey are in fact Dumpster diving by hiring Dubas and Keefe.

Dubas was overall extremely poor at drafting, and he drained the farm system, which would be OK if the team had playoff success but they didn't.

He has now gone on to Pittsburgh where he has taken the worst prospect pool in the league and even worse when he traded a 1st round pick for Erik Karlsson, and then proceeded to miss the playoffs, making that 1st rounder a top 15 pick.

Pittsburgh is the oldest team in the league, they need picks, especially top 15 picks.

Keefe is just a terrible coach, which is proven by his playoff record, he will get New Jersey to the playoffs assuming they are relatively healthy.

And then he will proceed to be out coached by whoever he's coaching against come the playoffs and New Jersey will bow out.

Yes Pittsburgh and New Jersey are in fact Dumpster diving.

So are you advocating to not employ any scouts and just pick using Central Scouting's list?

No, the question was who did Wes Clark reach on, he reached on Easton Cowan, and Ben Danforth too

 

[Mckay]

No, the question was who did Wes Clark reach on, he reached on Easton Cowan, and Ben Danforth too

He reached according to Central Scouting or Bob Mackenzie's lists. He didn't reach at all on the Leaf's internal list. You can argue if their scouts made a mistake, but if their pick(Cowan in this case) is progressing well then I don't believe calling him a reach is accurate. If you trust your scouts, you have to let them do their job.

 

[ULF_55]

He reached according to Central Scouting or Bob Mackenzie's lists. He didn't reach at all on the Leaf's internal list. You can argue if their scouts made a mistake, but if their pick(Cowan in this case) is progressing well then I don't believe calling him a reach is accurate. If you trust your scouts, you have to let them do their job.

Not sure Cowan will translate to the NHL, but considering he was MVP regular season, so beat out every other OHL player, and then MVP of OHL playoffs.

Scouting could still prove correct if Cowan cannot make the NHL and become a top 9 forward.

Not sure how people cannot look at the evidence and come to the same conclusion, unless they want to make excuses for the players who came up short? Player X was better but someone dulled his skates before all the games, but you can't blame Player X for his shortcomings! Player Y would have been better, but ...

At this point Leafs Scouting > Central Scouting wrt Cowan.

Check back in 4 years.