History does show that Elite players almost never come out of late rounds. Just the occasional really good ones.
Being that, to call the rest of the crop B-Level, i think is premature. Usually if a player has little to no chance to become that 50+ point player, there are signs. That doesn't mean that they can't be good NHLers (See McClement), but with players like that or say Broll, it's just not likely to expect 50-70 points perennially. That's okay! Especially given that 9/10 or more of these late picks never even reach the AHL let alone the NHL, Toronto has done a fabulous job...
But there's a number of prospects that could still be so much more.
Carter Verhaeghe, Connor Brown, and Andreas Johnson to start are putting up numbers. It's EARLY, ok, but frankly, 1.0PPG in the CHL is one thing. Plenty of players do that and it doesn't translate. ... but this is much much more than that. These numbers are significant. Same if not even more so for Johnson. He's putting up PPG numbers in a league that you could argue offers stiffer competition than the AHL, AT 18 years of age. DAMN. This stuff is not found on every other team in the league. These numbers are significant SO FAR, and it MUST to be taken seriously. The more so the longer it goes.
Furthermore, it doesn't end there. Finn and especially Percy look like the both of them have a real good chance to be top-4 D-men. That's not B-level. Loov, Nilsson and Granberg all have legitimate chances to become NHL players.
What about Tony Cameranesi, Dominic Toninato, and Joshua Leivo? None of them can be written off as B-Level prospects yet either.
NOW UNDERSTAND THIS
What is a bust? Maybe oh (Sondre Olden), a draft pick that never pans out (Mikhail Stefanovich)? Like well over 90% of picks after the first couple of rounds (Ben Winnett)? Check out the history (Luca Cereda), the vast majority of picks never even see a single NHL game, or if they do, it might be 10 or 15 total.
Lots of them never graduate beyond junior.
In the last 3 drafts, Toronto has made 20 picks, AND NOT EVEN ONE of them has busted yet. Now, i grant you it's early for some of those picks, but with all due respect, how many of them are actually BUSTING?
From the 2011 draft you can argue that every single last pick of the nine selected is ADVANCING. Same for 2012. All six are legitimately advancing. Busts don't advance. Some picks don't advance far enough, but most don't advance at all. It's stupid how good a return the leafs have got on picks lately. STUPID. And don't tell me they're all B-Level players because they're not. Most will be, that's natural, but they've not all stamped themselves into that yet.
OK, granted the leafs used to suck at drafting, but they have been working on that at an administrative level for some years now. The dividends are starting to show.
