• Moderators, please send me a PM if you are unable to access mod permissions. Thanks, Habsy.

2015 Leafs Draft Classs

First of all we have Rielly. Secondly, if they took Hanifin then they'd just need a big time center, which all contenders also have. They weren't going to fill all of their holes with that pick.
 
First of all we have Rielly. Secondly, if they took Hanifin then they'd just need a big time center. They weren't going to fill all of their holes with that pick.

As good as Rielly is, and I'm a huge fan of him there's no guarantee he turns into a stud on the blueline either, best not to put all our eggs in one basket. I agree we weren't going to solve all our needs this draft, that being said I rank a potential stud blueliner a lot higher then I rank a centre, that's just my preference though.
 
First of all we have Rielly. Secondly, if they took Hanifin then they'd just need a big time center. They weren't going to fill all of their holes with that pick.

Yep...we're going to need a few drafts like this, and hit more than miss to get out of this in anything less than 3-4 years. Tons of opportunity to add high talent defenders along the way. Shit, we pulled a high ceiling Thommie special out of this draft...
 
As good as Rielly is, and I'm a huge fan of him there's no guarantee he turns into a stud on the blueline either, best not to put all our eggs in one basket. I agree we weren't going to solve all our needs this draft, that being said I rank a potential stud blueliner a lot higher then I rank a centre, that's just my preference though.

You're going to duck my question and then continue bleating on about this?
 
Yep...we're going to need a few drafts like this, and hit more than miss to get out of this in anything less than 3-4 years. Tons of opportunity to add high talent defenders along the way. Shit, we pulled a high ceiling Thommie special out of this draft...

I have to agree with this! The Leafs pretty much need to restock all areas in this organization, while this draft was a solid first shot we need a few more to be a contender, and if you look at our roster next year it has the makings of another potential top 5 draft team.
 
Thanks for the list IW

I'm pretty happy with what they did especially Marner and adding more skilled guys. Didn't like reading that DesRocher needs to improve on his ability to make plays faster(i had Mark Fraser moments right after lol) but overall very solid draft.

The only picks I'm kind of blase on are Desrocher and Nielsen. And with Desrocher, so what? It's a 6th round pick.

We went hard after skill. If someone had told me yesterday that the Leafs were going to end the Draft with Marner, Dermott, Bracco, Timashov and Korostelev, I probably would have been ecstatic.

A guy like Jesper Lindgren and an unknown like Dzierkals are just icing at that point.
 
James Mirtle ‏@mirtle 10m10 minutes ago
Leafs pick Martins Dzierkals (the Latvian) is expected to come over and play in the CHL. Probably for team of Toronto's choice.


Wonder if he ends up playing for London?
 
James Mirtle ‏@mirtle 10m10 minutes ago
Leafs pick Martins Dzierkals (the Latvian) is expected to come over and play in the CHL. Probably for team of Toronto's choice.


Wonder if he ends up playing for London?

They're going to want him to play a lot of games (so someone with a chance at a deep playoff run) and it has to be a team with less than two import already. London fits that description. Having the kid develop alongside Marner would be pretty sweet.
 
Also worth noting, four of our picks are 1996s which means they have one year left before AHL eligibility. Nielsen, Desrocher and Dermott all could reinforce the Marlies defence corps for the 2016-17 season.

Timashov is the other 1996.
 
Also worth noting, four of our picks are 1996s which means they have one year left before AHL eligibility. Nielsen, Desrocher and Dermott all could reinforce the Marlies defence corps for the 2016-17 season.

Timashov is the other 1996.
Nice. It's important we keep a steady pipeline of our draft picks flowing through the Marlies every year. We did a great job of graduating draft picks to the Marlies this year, but will slow down a little next year. Partly due to Andreas Johnson staying over in Sweden, and us only having a total of five draft picks in the 2013 draft.

Added next year: Rinat Valiev, Carter Verhaeghe, Frederik Gauthier
Added this year: Connor Brown, William Nylander, Ryan Rupert, Victor Loov, Matt Finn, Antoine Bibeau, Tom Nilsson
Added last year: Josh Leivo, Stuart Percy, Petter Granberg
 
I am in utter disbelief at the haul the Leafs took in. I am sure that Mark Hunter wasn't going around to each table to negotiate now, he was going to each team's table to say "these aren't the players you're looking for... move along".
 
I already answered your question about the Rangers/Ducks, read my above post, at the bottom of page 1.

You didn't really answer the question...you basically invented an exception for your previous rule on the fly....and by almost every objective measure, Phaneuf & McD are very, very close in overall quality, and neither are the type of "stud" defender that you're suggesting is required to be a contender.

So again, 2 of the top 4 teams in the NHL this year lack a "stud" defender. Not much of a rule that is so important that we should ignore BPA with the 4th pick of the draft for.

And of course, you completely ignored the Ducks in your excuse making.
 
Teams with elite players do well... whether it be centers, wingers, dmen or goalies. The more you have, the better off you are.

Strange that some people don't get that.
 
You didn't really answer the question...you basically invented an exception for your previous rule on the fly....and by almost every objective measure, Phaneuf & McD are very, very close in overall quality, and neither are the type of "stud" defender that you're suggesting is required to be a contender.

So again, 2 of the top 4 teams in the NHL this year lack a "stud" defender. Not much of a rule that is so important that we should ignore BPA with the 4th pick of the draft for.

And of course, you completely ignored the Ducks in your excuse making.

In fairness, Hampus Lindholm is turning into a really special player for the Ducks.
 
I am in utter disbelief at the haul the Leafs took in. I am sure that Mark Hunter wasn't going around to each table to negotiate now, he was going to each team's table to say "these aren't the players you're looking for... move along".

"...move along IF you alls want a piece of that mad expansion money from Markham"
 
Does anyone have a source for trends in players size in the NHL? Lots of talk about smaller players coming in and succeeding in recent years, but is there a source that has quantified this beyond the various examples that get used?
 
Babcock is an organizational game changer.


At the same time, I'm happy they aren't giving him more power than he needs. Had it been Babcocks call, we'd have drafted Hanifin.


I want the guys to do what they're paid to excel at. Babcock coaching, and Hunter drafting/scouting.......and I'm glad Babcocks hire & monster contract doesn't appear to have come with a promise of more power than he should probably have.

They did use him to mine information though on various prospects, calling former coaches of players, talking with their parents pre-draft etc......so they're putting him to work in valuable ways.
 
Back
Top