As Bolland arrives from Chicago, the Leafs draft Frederik Gauthier; will he be a Leaf in five years?

The one thing that kept coming back to my mind the last few days as the hockey world has been gearing up for the entry draft is that, for all the complaining we tend to do as Leaf fans, we can’t honestly say (and I’m talking about a long period of time, dating back to the ‘80s, say) the Leafs have a terrible draft record.

I mean, like all teams, we have had our share of players who were drafted high and never played much in the NHL.  And fans talk about the fact that we have given away draft picks (or prospects) over the years but I will rarely criticize the Leafs for trying to do what it takes to win a Cup. After all, the hockey world is full of “prospects”, but when you really have a shot at something special, as the Leafs did, for example, in the early 2000s, I’ll support the team’s efforts to win a Cup any day if they feel a need to deal away some kids. Most prospects never really get past that stage.

To be clear, I’m all for having nice prospects in the system, but you need more than that to be successful.  (Heck for all the discussion around all the great picks and prospects we supposedly gave up in those early 2000 years, who did we really lose?  The name that often gets brought up is Brad Boyes, who had some nice offensive seasons years ago, sure.  But he’s played for six NHL organizations, so the Leafs were not alone in not finding him indispensible.)

Generally speaking, I have no major problem with how the Leafs handled their draft and prospects in the early 2000s.  We can always go back and see how they could have done better, though that applies to every NHL team. But I do recognize that when it comes to the Maple Leafs and their drafting history, the biggest thing that we fans tend to focus on, though, fair or not, is not always who we pick but where they end up.  I mean, picking players is hardly an exact science.  And what constitutes a “successful” draft pick, unless you’re talking Sidney Crosby, is pretty hard to quantify sometimes. It depends on what your expectations were going in.

To me, as important as “drafting” is, it’s really how you develop the kids you pick that matters most.  A team like the Red Wings has an almost mythical reputation for doing a great job of picking future superstars in the late rounds.  And it’s true, they have had some success in that regard.  But their real strength, I would argue, is how they develop those players—with patience, proper coaching and genuine support.

To be fair, the Leafs have had their share of late-round success, too.  Heck, Tomas Kaberle is a good example of that, as are more recent names that have worn the blue and white with some degree of  success. (Komarov and Gunnarsson are two other examples, both Ferguson selections, as I recall, and there have been others, like Ian White at 191 overall in 2002 and Danny Markov at 223 in 1995…)

So yes, sometimes the Leaf organization has shown an ability to be patient and allow youngsters an opportunity to truly develop at a reasonable pace.  Leaf fans of the ‘80s era well remember the 1989 draft, when then owner Harold Ballard was still around and management selected three guys from the same team—leading to no end of quips about how cheap the Leafs were, that they wouldn’t allow their scouts to drive past Belleville, etc..  But as I recall, each of the three kids we selected played in the NHL, just not much with the Leafs.  Maybe those were good picks after all and, again, the organization just did a terrible job of developing those players after they were drafted.  (I seem to recall one of those 1989 Leaf picks played close to 1,000 NHL games…Am I wrong about that?)

Much more recent, and a lot more relevant, is the Luke Schenn example.  I’m well aware that many within the Leaf fans base were thrilled to see us move the young defender last summer, especially given the opportunity to acquire James van Riemsdyk, a young forward with size and significant talent and potential.  But I have long seen Schenn as another example of a player being very poorly developed after he was drafted by the Leafs. He was rushed into the NHL, and while he showed flashes in Toronto, I had this nagging feeling that his confidence was shot by the time he left town.  And that’s a shame when you're talking about any draft pick, but especially someone you invest in as a first-rounder—and a player I believe still has an opportunity to be a big-minute NHL “D” man, despite his limitations.

So while some will argue the Leafs have done a better job of retaining and developing picks in the last few years, I’m still not sure I’m ready to make that pronouncement just yet, though a number of Marlies have started to make their mark with the big club, I realize. (How big those contributions will be over time, beyond a first-rounder like Kadri, I’m still not sure…and I remain convinced that even Kadri was in play if other teams had been willing to pull the trigger on a deal with the Leafs prior to this past season.)

Bottom line, what I’m wondering today is: will Gauthier still be a Leaf five years down the road?

A few things bring this to mind.  Not just Leaf history, but also reports that the Bruins were actually considering trading Tyler Seguin.  That would be pretty bold stuff, eh?  If Seguin can be dealt, after the never-ending analysis of the Kessel trade, it’s a brave new cap world in hockey, eh?

From a Leaf perspective, I admit I sometimes rue the times we had some really solid young players and they ended up blossoming elsewhere. And in this regard, I’m not talking about future draft picks or “prospects”, I’m referring to young, emerging NHL players.

Examples that come to mind over the years would include:

-Al Iafrate (drafted in 1984)

-Vincent Damphousse (drafted in 1986)

-Luke Richardson (drafted 1987)

-Kenny Jonsson (drafted 1993)

Those were extremely talented young Leafs, who all had long and very solid NHL careers—largely elsewhere.  Iafrate was about as gifted a Maple Leaf as I’ve seen over the decades, but I guess it just wasn’t going to work here.  We got Bob Rouse from the Capitals for Iafrate, and he was a big part of the Pat Burns era.  We can debate the wisdom of the deals involving the other young players I cited, but there are usually pros and cons in all of those situations.  And yes, it’s always easier to second-guess after the fact.

Maybe the most painful recent example is Tuukka Rask (2005 first-round pick), traded to the Bruins for Andrew Raycroft, who the Leafs believed was an emerging goalie at the time.  In truth, Rask was not really in the same category as the players I just mentioned.  He was probably more of a ‘prospect’ in that he never actually played with the Leafs.  While I will defend most of the Leafs’ moves prior to that in the early 2000s (including, yes, the Owen Nolan deal) that trade simply did not work. 

Whether it’s fair to criticize the Leafs after the fact for the Rask deal, it’s not hard to argue that, developed properly in Toronto (which probably would not have happened, I admit, given our history of developing goalies here) Rask would be a bonafide star, an unquestioned number-one netminder.  We would not need to have an annual debate about who we bring in next to play goal. We’d already have our guy.

To a much lesser extent in recent times, players like Tlusty and Stalberg have found their form and some degree of success after being drafted and then dealt away by the Leafs, but again, it’s hard to whine too much about our GM’s trying to improve their roster.  It can’t always work out.

I well recognize that right now,  most Leaf fans don’t care about what happened thirty years ago, or even ten years ago  They’re interested in recent draft choices:  Kadri, Blacker, D’Amigo, Biggs, Percy, Leivo, along with Rielly, of course, and Finn.  Maybe Devane and Broll, too.

And now we can add big Gauthier to that list. Will he be a first-liner some day?  An excellent checking center?   What’s a good enough ‘ceiling’ in your mind for a player drafted 21^st overall?

And how many of the recent Leaf picks I just listed will really “make” it?  How many will be impact players- in Toronto?

And which of those guys will be core players when the Leafs are contenders for the Cup?

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When all was said and done, the Leafs made no first-round 'noise', nothing that would have excited the faithful and catapulted the Leafs into the upper echelons of the draft. My sense is most fans were fine with this patient approach from Nonis, believing that Toronto has plenty of prospects in the cupboard already and what we really will need before too long are some greybeard vets who can get us over the top...


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That said, my early feeling about the Bolland trade is very positive.  He's no "greybeard", but we already have plenty of draft picks and prospects. What we need are some guys who can also play right now.  While Bolland may not quite have evolved exactly the way I envisioned three years ago (not as much offense as I might have thought), he certainly should fit as a second-line center here in Toronto.

Is he actually more of an elite (at least very solid) third-line center?  Maybe.  But he should fit here, in terms of his all-around game.  You can't easily find players who are his age (27) with his experience and who have been an integral part of two Stanley Cup teams.  We've often talked in this space about needing players in our lineup who know what is required to make it far in the playoffs.

In Bolland's case, he has been part of two championship squads, which is invaluable experience to add to the Leaf roster- and our dressing room.

A sobering thought is that we had similar hopes when Kris Versteeg arrived here from the Hawks after their previous Cup season (when Chicago also faced cap issues), and that did not work out.  Also, Bolland will be a free-agent in a year, unless Toronto can extend him.

My guess:  the Leafs try to do just that, and they will let Tyler Bozak walk.



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I guess I was less shocked than Roberto Luongo that he is still with the Canucks.  (He was apparently so stunned he declined to speak with the media after the trade was announced...)  It just felt more and more likely that Mike Gillis had no options for Luongo that would have been acceptable to Canuck fans. (Buying him out, leaving them with nothing, or trading him in a cap deal that wasn’t really a “hockey” deal…) So, dealing Schneider instead just made sense, at least to me. I believe I referenced that likelihood in this space a few months ago.

Vancouver got the 9^th overall choice in return, and by all accounts, they selected a player who has a bright future.  So as much as Gillis has been chastised for having boxed himself in (though I’ll say it again:  wasn’t Luongo the guy who first said, after the playoffs in 2012, that it might be best if he was traded elsewhere?), maybe he has now bailed himself out.  If Luongo plays like he can, he is still an elite goaltender.  And it doesn’t sound like the Canucks were going to get a top-ten pick for Luongo, given his contract status, so this particular soap opera is over—unless Luongo decides he still wants out of town…)

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I noticed that the Islanders got a guy who would look good in a Leaf uniform- gritty forward Cal Clutterbuck.  He will make the Islanders harder to play against, changing the dynamic in the Eastern Conference just a bit..