Your high hopes for Leaf prospects that fell through?

[WillieKnees]

For me:

1. Matt Frattin (first time I saw him play an NHL game I thought he would turn out to be a real player, was wrong)
2. Biggs
3. Schenn (simply put rushed into the league, cant pivot, cant skate at the NHL level)

 

[deletethis]

Luke schenn for me.

Always wondered why too...

Was he just an early puberty kid that became man-size in Junior faster than his peers so he could dominate only until they inevitably caught up physically?

You hope for the best because he's a Leafs' prospect but there were many who suggested that he was simply just physically precocious not particularly talented and it appears that they were right. I'm not sure I've seen a teenage rookie defenseman be as physically mature since Scott Stevens.

Can't skate. He still hasn't worked out that deficiency to this day. Also, has no offensive capabilities whatsoever. Not sure if the latter can be improved with extra time in the minors.

I swear he could skate better when he was a rookie. I also think he could pivot better then. He did have a knee injury in his rookie season.

The guy doesn't even have a proper point shot. It's amazing that an NHL defenseman can't take a decent slapshot. He always goes to the wrist shot that he takes a year to get off and half the time fires it into someone's shins.

 

[CalgaryLeaf*]

Convery did come up at a time when every offensively inclined smallish center was supposed to be the next Yzerman or the next Sakic.

Convery, Daigle, Connolly, Weiss, Lundmark, etc.

Since when is 6' smallish?

 

[Purity*]

Kadri.

He never became that 100+ point superstar he was supposed to become. Incredibly disappointing.

 

[7even]

Kyle Wellwood. Thought he was going to be a player after that year he was almost PPG.

 

[Leafs87]

Jerry damigo doesn't get much love in this thread for some reason,

 

[NylanderBros]

Loved Biggs and "The Monster"!

 

[ULF_55]

All of them LOL. None of them have ever worked out.

Well looking at the past 20 years or so, Kaberle may be the best of the bunch, but yes otherwise quite a few mediocre players selected.

Leafs Picks
Kaberle
Steen
Boyes
Rask

Pretty fricken sad.

 

[IBeL34f]

Well looking at the past 20 years or so, Kaberle may be the best of the bunch, but yes otherwise quite a few mediocre players selected.

Leafs Picks
Kaberle
Steen
Boyes
Rask

Pretty fricken sad.

Not a fan of Stralman? Tlusty, Antropov, Gunnarsson, Reimer? Kadri, Rielly?

We haven't had many world-beaters lately, that's for sure, but we've produced a pretty good number of household NHLers out of later picks, which are definitely success stories.

 

[namttebih]

I had high hopes for Chris Domenico. Brutal injury the year after draft was ignored by most who called him a bust.

Not our pick but I was admittedly wrong about Ashton.

 

[Tonka]

Telleqvist, Colaicovo, Boyes, Steen (though he started to play better with STL), Pogge, etc etc.

 

[Szymonmf]

whoever managed to get 80 overall in my NHL Dynasty Mode saves

 

[ULF_55]

Not a fan of Stralman? Tlusty, Antropov, Gunnarsson, Reimer? Kadri, Rielly?

We haven't had many world-beaters lately, that's for sure, but we've produced a pretty good number of household NHLers out of later picks, which are definitely success stories.

As I said, a lot of mediocre players over the past 20 years.

Rielly? I think he's on the wait and see list, as he's not accomplished anything that makes him memorable.

 

[Moncherry]

Telleqvist, Colaicovo, Boyes, Steen (though he started to play better with STL), Pogge, etc etc.

There was nothing wrong with Steen here, either. Just lofty expectations where any decent centreman was groomed as being the next Sundin.

 

[TuckerFan1]

Brad Ross

I was so upset when Tucker was bought out. Then we drafted Ross and the word on him was that he was going to be just like Tucker, so I hopped on that bandwagon real quick.

 

[william_adams]

Well looking at the past 20 years or so, Kaberle may be the best of the bunch, but yes otherwise quite a few mediocre players selected.

Leafs Picks
Kaberle
Steen
Boyes
Rask

Pretty fricken sad.

The lack of high-end players produced by the Leafs' system over the past 25 years is really depressing.

Curious to know what folks here think is the cause. Bad drafting? Bad development? Both?

 

[psycro]

I don't think we drafted this guy, but what happened to Simon Gysbers?

He signed in the KHL with Medvescak Zagreb this season.

 

[namttebih]

The lack of high-end players produced by the Leafs' system over the past 25 years is really depressing.

Curious to know what folks here think is the cause. Bad drafting? Bad development? Both?

TSN drive on 1050 in Toronto had a daily segment that they did leading up to the draft this year dissecting Leafs drafts over the last 30 years. As you said, bad drafting and development played a huge part but the fact that they traded away so many picks if want really killed them. There was a couple of draft years where the career NHL games played by all of the players drafted was below 100. One year was 20 career games!!!

 

[TheGroceryStick]

I thought Kulemin was going to utterly amazing. I remember looking at his progression up to his big goal year and thought.... hmm we may have a Datsyuk on our team.

I know at that point he wasn't a prospect. And has become a regular NHLer. But wow, was I wrong about his peak.

 

[Trapper]

The lack of high-end players produced by the Leafs' system over the past 25 years is really depressing.

Curious to know what folks here think is the cause. Bad drafting? Bad development? Both?

Backwards philosophy IMO.
The Leafs (and then Burke) tried to trade for skill (which costs you an arm and a leg) and tried to draft role players.

We've seen it. Now you have Kessel, no strong picks to bolster (they've all been traded) and you surround that player with role players that 90% bomb.

Schenn was drafted for his size as a "shutdown" D.
Ross the agitator.
Devane/Broll the 4th line pugalists.
Etc. etc.

Draft the skill and trade for the role players.

 

[Sundinisagod]

first that came to my mind or Berehowsky

Rob Pearson comes to mind as well.

 

[Sundinisagod]

Backwards philosophy IMO.
The Leafs (and then Burke) tried to trade for skill (which costs you an arm and a leg) and tried to draft role players.

We've seen it. Now you have Kessel, no strong picks to bolster (they've all been traded) and you surround that player with role players that 90% bomb.

Schenn was drafted for his size as a "shutdown" D.
Ross the agitator.
Devane/Broll the 4th line pugalists.
Etc. etc.

Draft the skill and trade for the role players.

Whenever we choose size over skill it never works out. Still not over taking Luke Richardson over Joe Sakic. Looks like we're finally starting to learn our lesson.

 

[Johny Drama]

Drake Berehowsky
Scott Pearson
Rob Pearson
Peter Ing
John Mcintyre
Steve Bancroft
Jeff Ware
Rob Cimetta
Landon Wilson

 

[Bullseye]

Kenny Jonsson was a fav. young player for me - got traded for Clark I believe and didn't last long with the Isles.

Bryan Berard's eye injury was the biggest let-down ever - I thought we had the makings of a very strong up and coming defense core then...

True prospect let-down definitely Pogge and Tellqvist.

Hope Percy can stay healthy or he may fall into this category - he has a pro game in there.

 

[timlap]

Kenny Jonsson was a fav. young player for me - got traded for Clark I believe and didn't last long with the Isles.

Bryan Berard's eye injury was the biggest let-down ever - I thought we had the makings of a very strong up and coming defense core then...

True prospect let-down definitely Pogge and Tellqvist.

Hope Percy can stay healthy or he may fall into this category - he has a pro game in there.

Jonsson played 8 seasons with the Islanders, so I wouldn't say he didn't last long. I was very disappointed when we traded him.

He could have stayed in the NHL longer than he did. He just wanted to play in Sweden.