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2015 Leafs Draft Classs

LeafGm said:
Says you. We'll find out in due time whether or not that's the case.

From what I've read, I'm not too surprised they passed on Merkley. The gist of the scouting reports I've read on him is that he's not a great skater and not the most skilled, but he's got great "hockey IQ", intangibles and he's a "hard worker". Which isn't really the kind of player I'd expect skill-obsessed Mark Hunter, or advanced stats-guru Kyle Dubas to have serious interest in.

As for Kylington, I wanted us to grab him with that #34 pick too. But I'm sure they got a fair bit of input on him from Thommie Bergman. If Bergman had a lot of great things to say about him, you'd think the Leafs would've grabbed him when he started dropping like a rock.
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Fair enough. I agree, says me.

The Dermott pick I'm just kinda meh about, and the Bracco pick is good but that's a real case of size potentially being an issue.

As HL said, not enough to be upset about, just think I'd be a little more elated with Merkley and Kylington in the fold. But let's see how it all shakes out.
 
Yeah, we're in the same boat with the Dermott pick. My first reaction to that pick was "huh?", followed up by "meh" once I read up on him a bit. He seems to be a Stuart Percy-esque defenseman. Not very big, but not very small. Doesn't excell in any particular part of the game, but there's no particular weakness in his game either.

So, I'm not really sure about grabbing him where we did, but hopefully Hunter's earning his paycheque with that pick and knows something you or I don't know.
 
Thing that worries me a bit with Dermott is whether the McDavid and Strome exposure artificially drove his value up in the eyes of scouts.

Not in the sense of points necessarily, but just that he was on the ice with such good players while he played.

On this one I'm actually hopeful there's more than meets the eye, and that Hunter saw something special there.
 
Yeah, that was a concern for me too. Dermott has nice point totals, particularly in the playoffs, but you do wonder how many of those points come from playing on a PP with McDavid & Strome.

The numbers he puts up this coming season with no McDavid, and potentially no Strome, should be pretty telling.
 
Somebody always trades up in these drafts.

A couple places it'd be good for him to end up:

Brandon (legit Memorial Cup contenders)
Red Deer (Memorial Cup hosts)
London (obvious reasons)
Sarnia (their division is wide open - could play with Zacha and Korostelev)
 
hockeylover said:
What's Kitchener looking like? They have Bracco's rights. Maybe they end up with both Bracco and Dzierkals.
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Kitchener will be competitive (though they need a goaltender).

Problem is they also have two Imports already and would need to trade one. They can draft Dzierkals but can't sign him until they trade one.
 
IrishWolfman said:
Kitchener will be competitive (though they need a goaltender).

Problem is they also have two Imports already and would need to trade one. They can draft Dzierkals but can't sign him until they trade one.
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Thanks for the info!

Tons of CHL guys to keep an eye on next season. Should be fun.
 
NHL Draft Grades - http://lastwordonsports.com/2015/06/29/lwos-2015-nhl-draft-grades-part-3/

Toronto Maple Leafs
Grade: A (3rd best NHL Draft)
Players Drafted: Mitch Marner, Travis Dermott, Jeremy Bracco, Andrew Nielsen, Martins Dzierkals, Jesper Lindgren, Dmytro Timashov, Stephen Desrocher, Nikita Korostelev
Best Value: Korostelev (Best Value Pick in NHL Draft)

In the lead up to the NHL draft, Mark Hunter and Kyle Dubas both talked about the Leafs changing their organizational philosophy at the drat table. They talked about pure skill being the number one factor in looking at players, and that things the Leafs had value in the past like size, or grit or intangibles may not be as big a factor anymore. They certainly let that play out on draft day. With the change to a more skill based drafting the Leafs were able to trade down multiple times, stockpile picks, and get a number of undersized, but highly skilled players who slipped due to those size concerns. The Leafs also picked up a defenseman with high skill at the minor league level (and excellent size) in Martin Marincin. I think he could really blossom in Toronto. The only critique of the weekend is that Phil Kessel, Dion Phaneuf, Joffrey Lupul, and Tyler Bozak are still on the roster and haven’t been shipped out. The hammer could fall on those trades at any time though.
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They had the Oilers first and the Islanders 2nd.
 
The one aspect I also see as a positive with dermott is the fact that he's been passing and setting up break outs to NHL "stars" in mcdavid and strome. I mean he has to be able to think at a high level when looking for those guys. He's not passing to kids. He's passing to a generational talent.
 
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