Jun 23, 2017
Quieter draft still an important one for Leafs
Picking 17th overall this year, the Leafs won't garner the headlines they did last year. But GM Lou Lamoriello knows it's still essential to get players to add to the team's identity and success. Kristen Shilton writes.
CHICAGO — What a difference a year has made for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Last June in Buffalo, the Leafs held the first overall pick in the NHL’s Entry Draft and used it to select centre Auston Matthews, a relatively easy choice that paid major dividends for the franchise these last 12 months. Matthews quickly evolved into the dominant player head coach Mike Babcock predicted he would, and has helped fast-track the Leafs rebuild beyond even their own expectations.
All told, Toronto selected 11 players in 2016 - seven forwards, three defensemen and a goalie, adding to an already impressive stable of prospects populating their farm teams and spread out among the junior ranks. The Leafs’ front office didn’t know what exactly the foundation of the team would come to look like in a season’s time, but knowing now where they stand has made preparing for the first round of the 2017 draft on Friday night (where they hold the 17th overall pick) a little easier.
“I think we know more about who we are as an organization and what our needs are,” general manager Lou Lamoriello said on Thursday. “Drafts are all the same - we’re still trying to get the best players we can.”
Calling it “essential” to build through the draft, Lamoriello noted it’s how many of the Leafs’ key contributors came into the organization. Most of those players, like Mitch Marner (4th overall), Morgan Rielly (5th overall) and William Nylander (8th overall), were taken high in the draft, but Lamoriello isn’t apologizing to assistant general manager and director of player personnel Mark Hunter and his staff for the challenge that comes after earning a table in the middle the draft floor.
In total, Toronto has seven selections in the 2017 draft - after the first round, they have one pick in the second (59), two in the fourth (110, 124), and one each in the fifth (141), sixth (172) and seventh (203) rounds. If the Leafs do indeed hold onto number 17, they could choose to go with the best player available regardless of position, or target a couple areas where the organization is especially thin. With a backlog of small, speedy wingers, selecting a centre like St. Cloud State’s Ryan Poehling (6-foot-3, 207 pounds) or Charlottetown defenceman Pierre-Olivier Joseph (6-foot-2, 160 pounds) could help to fill some potential holes forming down the road.
“More so than last year…I think you know more about what the foundation is right now,” said Lamoriello. “You certainly have a [draft] wish list, but that’s about where it’s at. I think we all know [last] year went better than anyone might have expected. We didn’t know where exactly our young players would be, how quickly it would take for them to develop, and they were outstanding.”
With so many core pieces of the franchise playing at a high level, there aren’t many available spots as it is for all the Leafs’ prospects who stand to be ready for NHL action in the next few seasons. It’s a good problem for Toronto to have - but puts a lot of pressure on the players already in the league not to become complacent after one good campaign.
“The next year is more difficult [for the young guys] - you’re not going to sneak up on anyone, and the parity in the league is not going to change,” Lamoriello said. “We’ll find out more in how we handle that and in how much improved we are and how much our players do over the summer to get better. It’s on them.”
Even with some impressive equality among teams around the league, the back-to-back Stanley Cup titles by the Pittsburgh Penguins shows how impactful a roster built in large part through good drafting and good development can be. But Lamoriello isn’t trying to model the Leafs in anyone else’s image.
“That’s the worst thing you can do, look at the success another team has,” he said. “What you have to continue to do is compete against yourself. Not compare, not look left, not look right. I don’t know any other way.”
Right now, he’s got his hands full not only with helping to pick future Leafs but figuring out which veterans might be a part of the team’s present. Lamoriello wouldn’t say whether he’d been in touch with defenceman Matt Hunwick’s camp about bringing the pending free agent back for next season, nor did he have an answer on whether the Leafs will have a good chance of adding veteran players via trade over draft weekend (“if we knew [what we were going to do] we’d have something done already”).
Whatever Toronto ends up doing in Chicago, it stands to be a much quieter two days than it was in Buffalo, but that doesn’t make it any less important. The identity of the Maple Leafs has begun to take shape, and they have to preserve and cultivate it with the right additions at every level. And even if the hype surrounding the team's upcoming season is already building with three months still to go, Lamoriello is, as usual, simply staying his course.
“All of us want to be challenged, want to have people believe in you,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with expectations. As long as you prepare, you can give yourself every opportunity to have success. That’s a positive thing.”