By Alex Hobson
After a 2014-15 season every Leafs fan would like to forget, MLSE gave President of Hockey Operations Brendan Shanahan the green light to commence a full out rebuild. Not a Brian Burke type "rebuild" where you trade all your picks and prospects for "act-now" players (hence, the Phil Kessel trade), a real rebuild. Our new management team of Shanahan, Kyle Dubas, and Mark Hunter seems to have the right idea on what needs to happen throughout this rebuild, and the first step to this process being to build through the draft. So coming into one of the deepest drafts since 2003, you could imagine that this is an exciting time for Leafs fans. So I present to you, part one. The Draft.
Everybody knows that the two franchise players of this draft are Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel, who will more than likely be selected by the Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres respectively. After these prospects, the next big three are Dylan Strome of the Erie Otters, Mitch Marner of the London Knights, and Noah Hanifin of Boston College. The Leafs hold the 4th overall pick, and the reality is, no matter who they take with this pick, he'll be a good player, and should satisfy everybody. You could take Dylan Strome, a big, 6'3 centre with great passing skills and an NHL shot, you could take Mitch Marner, a small, speedy winger that doesn't lack a single aspect to his game except for his size, who has been compared to Patrick Kane in numerous reports, or you could take Noah Hanifin, a big, defenseman who has a strong offensive upside, but is not shy in his own end either. Compares himself to Drew Doughty or Duncan Keith. No matter who they take with this pick, it'll be a key piece in this rebuild. Personally, I don't care whether they take Strome, Marner, or Hanifin. No matter who they pick up, i'll be satisfied. But if you do research on the prospects and the staff, the most likely scenario seems to be the Leafs taking Mitch Marner at #4. Marner has deep connections to the Leafs Director of Player Personnel Mark Hunter, who drafted Marner into the OHL when he was still GM of London, and as Kyle Dubas stated in a prior press conference, "we aren't good enough to be picky about size. We need as many elite players as we can get. If we become too small of a team when we're contending, it's much easier to draft skill and trade for size than to draft size and trade for skill." This basically screams the name "Mitch Marner". Marner has the potential to grow to 6'0 or 6'1 and definitely has the potential to gain a few pounds, so I would not be surprised if Marner is a Leaf on draft day.
Now, to another important pick. The 24th pick in the draft. The top 5 of prospects is a given, so this pick is a lot harder to predict on who they might take. But it doesn't make this pick any less important. Basically, if they take a forward with their top pick, then you could expect them to take a defenseman with their 24th pick, and vice versa. There are a couple different routes you could take in terms of prospects. You could take skilled, speedy forward path and draft someone like Daniel Sprong, who has an incredible skill set and is a treat to watch all the time. You could go with a smart, two way centre in Jansen Harkins of the Prince George Cougars, or you could go with a skilled two way defenseman such as Jeremy Roy of Sherbrooke, or Oliver Kylington of AIK. Then, there is always the option of a big defenseive defenseman such as Brandon Carlo of the Tri-City Americans. In reality, there are lots of different routes the Leafs could take with this pick, but they need to be smart and develop whoever they take right. It is also entirely possible that the Leafs could trade their star sniper in Phil Kessel for another early first round pick, or even one of their centres such as Nazem Kadri or Tyler Bozak in exchange for a 2nd round pick and a prospect.
All in all, there are many different ways this draft could go, but the one thing we need to do is develop the player right, and make smart decisions. What do you think, Leafs fans?
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