At the beginning of the year I thought he’d be great if he fell to us, then I did some more research.
If read about his complete lack of give-a-damn attitude towards his teammates and coaching staff, the fact that he blows the D-zone first despite being a defence man, his selfish behaviour, no thanks.
I’ll give a pass to a coachable talent who needs to learn his craft, but not to a selfish player who doesn’t care about anything but his stats
I mean, keep in mind the Leafs suspended Nazem Kadri 3 years ago, almost to the day. He's now a core piece for this team.
And we also have Mark Hunter, who has people at all corners of the OHL, and I'm sure has a great understanding of the situation. Should he be available when we pick, and should Hunter select him, I think we'd have to sorta roll with it.
In September, Merkley was top 10 in McKenzie's draft rankings. As of mid-season, he was still 11th. This is a kid that if as a lot of recent rankings seem to indicate, has fallen to the 20-30 range, simply due to the off-ice issues, and we'll see if the actual NHL scouts agree when he releases his next rankings.
He's a no brainer at our pick IF Hunter and management believe they can put him on the straight and narrow. But that's something we all sorta have to leave that up to our management because they all know more than us