Despite not having a first round pick in this year's CPHL Entry Draft, the Toronto Maple Leafs again enjoyed participating in the draft and ended up with a total of seven selections - five forwards and two defensemen.
Seeing Rasmus Asplund, Tage Thompson and Brett Howden come off the board right before the Leafs' first selection made the GM briefly curse like a sailor, but after calming down, the Leafs took a flyer on a wildcard in forward
Tyler Benson. The former 1st overall Bantam selection has had quite a few injury problems last season, and it remains to be seen whether this has a long-term impact or not. If he stays healthy, Benson is probably a first-round talent.
The second selection in the second round was Swedish defenseman
Jacob Moverare, who played a few games for HV71s SHL team but spent the majority of the season in the SuperElit. Moverare is a mobile two-way defenseman with skill and a decent frame. He's expected to be a late second in the draft, but since the second round saw a bit of a run for defensemen in our draft (at 47, Moverare was the eighth blueliner in that round), so I pulled the trigger a bit earlier.
Our favourite forwards came off the board right before this pick, so we decided to turn to another defenseman instead: Czech blueliner
Filip Hronek spent most of the past season playing against men in the Czech Extraliga and is another puck-moving type with really good mobility and hockey IQ. He'll definitely have to bulk up, but the talent is there.
Later in the third round we drafted a budding power forward in
Givani Smith, who scored 23 goals for the Storm while also leading the whole OHL in penalty minutes with 146. The intrigue is there, but Smith is certainly a raw prospect that will need to work on some aspects of his game.
Early in the third round, we chose our first center of the draft in Cataractes forward
Brandon Gignac. He is a bit on the smaller side and will definitely have to bulk up, but the offense is there (24 goals and almost PPG this season). Will be interesting to see how he develops as his role in the QMJHL grows.
At 100, we then chose a player with NHL bloodlines. At 6'5 and 200,
Hudson Elynuik is already a lot bigger than his father Pat ... if he becomes a 30 goal scorer at the NHL level like his father, then this pick is obviously a steal. For now, Elynuik is an interesting prospect with a good shot and decent skating.
To round out the draft, we went back to Sweden and chose centerman
Tim Wahlgren, who was among the best scorers in the SuperElit last season and spent some time with the SHL team as well. Since MODO was relegated to the Allsvenskan, I hope he'll have a bigger role there next season.
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In addition to these selections, the Maple Leafs have one overager on their roster: 19-year-old
Dylan Gambrell, who scored over a point per game in his first NCAA season for the University of Denver and who could well be a mid-round pick in the upcoming draft.
All in all, I'm a bit lukewarm about the selections. Certainly could have gone better and probably not the best haul I've had in our drafts, but there's some decent upside in there for sure. Fingers crossed that Benson stays healthy.
Leafs Draft Review
