ottomaddox
Registered User
We've seen and still see so many great centres and wingers in this league that weren't 1st overall picks like Matthews, or top 10 picks like Kadri, Nylander and Marner, or even 1st round picks, that just went above and beyond in terms of progression and development and have become stars and superstars. We've never had that luxury yet.
Our longest serving Leaf once Bozak is gone will be Nazem Kadri, and he was drafted in 2009 so lets use that as a starting point of all our forwards drafted in the 2nd round and later. The results are embarrassing.
2009
2nd round, 50th overall: Kenny Ryan, 0 NHL GP
3rd round, 68th overall: Jamie Devane, 2 NHL GP, 0 G, 0 A, 0 P
6th round, 158th overall: Jerry D'Amigo, 31 NHL GP, 1 G, 2 A, 3 P (22 GP with Leafs)
2010
2nd round, 43rd overall: Brad Ross, 0 NHL GP
3rd round, 62nd overall: Greg McKegg, 91 NHL GP, 7 G, 6 A, 13 P (4 GP with Leafs)
3rd round, 79th overall: Sondre Olden, 0 NHL GP
5th round, 144th overall: Sam Carrick, 19 NHL GP, 1 G, 1 A, 2 P
5th round, 146th overall: Daniel Brodin, 0 NHL GP
7th round, 182nd overall: Josh Nicholls, 0 NHL GP
2011
3rd round, 86th overall: Josh Leivo, 57 NHL GP, 10 G, 12 A, 22 P*
5th round, 130th overall: Tony Cameranesi, 0 NHL GP
6th round, 152nd overall: David Broll, 5 NHL GP, 0 G, 1 A, 1 P
2012
5th round, 126th overall: Dominic Toninato, 37 NHL GP, 0 G, 2 A, 2 P (0 GP with Leafs)
6th round, 156th overall: Connor Brown, 171 NHL GP, 35 G, 35 A, 70 P*
6th round, 157th overall: Ryan Rupert, 0 NHL GP
2013
3rd round, 86th overall: Carter Verhaeghe, 0 NHL GP
5th round, 142nd overall: Fabrice Herzog, 0 NHL GP
7th round, 202nd overall: Andreas Johnsson, 9 NHL GP, 2 G, 1 A, 3 P*
2014
4th round, 103rd overall: J.J. Piccinich, 0 NHL GP
5th round, 128th overall: Dakota Joshua, 0 NHL GP
6th round, 158th overall: Nolan Vesey, 0 NHL GP
7th round, 188th overall: Pierre Engvall, 0 NHL GP**
2015
2nd round, 61st overall: Jeremy Bracco, 0 NHL GP**
3rd round, 68th overall: Martins Dzierkals, 0 NHL GP
5th round, 125th overall: Dmytro Timashov, 0 NHL GP**
7th round, 185th overall: Nikita Korostelev, 0 NHL GP
tl;dr whole lot of prospects with 0 GP
* Leivo always ends up being a scratch or 4th liner when he's in the lineup so I feel like his potential is pretty much wasted. Brown has turned into a decent 3rd liner for us with penalty killing abilities, but that's about it, the guy doesn't do much else, benefited heavily from playing with Matthews his rookie year, and his regression this year when not playing with him showed. Johnsson is our 1 lucky late pick with top 6 potential, he is 24 years old so he's already in the prime years of his career and he just finally had his cup of coffee in the NHL. He is really going to need to show more next season.
** Jury is still out on Engvall, Bracco and Timashov on them just being NHL'ers. They definitely don't have star+ potential though. I'd say Engvall has higher potential at this point though after what he's shown since coming to the Marlies, and the SHL.
Not gonna do 2016-2017, too early for that. It's just absolutely amazing to me that the only way we were able to finally climb out of the basement was to get lucky by winning a lottery then drafting a franchise centre 1st overall, suck and suck to get Nylander and Marner, while getting no luck at all in the late rounds for forwards along the way. We need a Bergeron, a Benn, a Kucherov, a Marchand, a Gaudreau, a Stone, an Aho, a Point.
It's easy to make the Matthews and Marner picks. Imagine where we could've been this season or where we could be next season if we just had 1 single surprise mid or late round pick so that useless players like Bozak, Komarov or Martin would be long gone, and that there would've never been a need to sign/trade for players like Moore or Plekanec in the 1st place.
I like this thread. It's risky and I have to agree.
This why I still support trades, and UFA signings. People think we are loaded with prospects and better players that can easily replace Komarov, Polak, JVR, Bozak, Moore, and Plekanec. We don't really have that, and a successful Marlies team doesn't necessarily mean an amazing NHL team will be in the making.
I am glad we drafted Matthews, Marner, Rielly, etc. because we have very little to speak of when it comes to our other rounds of drafting.