Glaring need for an Elite D prospect

[Bravid Nonahan]

The glaring reality of the 2016, 2017 NHL entry draft.

 

[TheLeastOfTheBunch]

Need another center and another defenceman and we'll have a solid core.

Was hoping we'd get Maatta, and then draft one of the top forwards in next year's draft. Basically set up our core as: Marner, Nylander, 2016 1st round pick forward, and Rielly, Maatta on D.

Oh well..

 

[tooncesmeow]

Was hoping we'd get Maatta, and then draft one of the top forwards in next year's draft. Basically set up our core as: Marner, Nylander, 2016 1st round pick forward, and Rielly, Maatta on D.

Oh well..

I think that's a bit pessimistic.

Good players on our club:
Kadri, JVR, Phaneuf, Rielly, Gardiner, Bernier

Unproven:
Bailey, Panik, Holland, Polak, Marincin

Then you have Leipsic, Brown, Hyman, Leivo, Percy, Finn, Loov, and all the kids in junior and in Europe.

To say none of those players can be part of the core is a bit silly.

 

[MR4]

We need a Elite RHD prospect, which none of Chychrun, Maatta, Pouliot, etc fit as.

If only we got Ekblad

I'd say we will probably have Nylander-Marner-XXXXX or XXXXX-Nylander-Marner or Nylander-XXXXX-Marner so we either need a top wing prospect or centre prospect (Matthews) next year.

 

[realgoodleafs]

Was hoping we'd get Maatta, and then draft one of the top forwards in next year's draft. Basically set up our core as: Marner, Nylander, 2016 1st round pick forward, and Rielly, Maatta on D.

Oh well..

Yeah I was assuming we'd get Pouliot but we were boxed into a corner. We should be gunning for Logan Brown next year, a Sundin sized skilled center.

 

[Super Mega]

Its a massive need and part of why I think Hanifin was so appealing.

Love the Marner pick but its tough selecting a BPA that is contrary to need

 

[Celly Hard]

Heres to Chychrun next draft!

 

[Swervin81]

Here's a 4 year map of our core I see

15-16:

JVR-Kadri-Lupul
Komarov-Holland-Parenteau

Rielly-???


16-17:

JVR-Kadri-Lupul
Komarov-Marner-Nylander

Rielly-???


17-18:

JVR-Marner-Nylander
Kapanen-???-???

Rielly-???

18-19:

???-Marner-Nylander
Kapanen/Bracco/???-???-???

Rielly-???

Yup, the biggest hole is definitely franchise D, but Chychrun will take care of that

 

[MR4]

@Above, Nylander prefers LW if on the wing and Kapanen is a RW.

Not sure why we'd trade away Kadri before 17-18 though.. He'd be a good 2C if none other prospects develop to that level

 

[613Leafer]

Its a process. Dermott, Percy, Granberg, Loov, Valiev, etc all have legitimate NHL upside. Sure, we dont have an Ekblad in there, but lets see what we have 12 months from now.

 

[seanlinden]

We need a Elite RHD prospect, which none of Chychrun, Maatta, Pouliot, etc fit as.

If only we got Ekblad

I'd say we will probably have Nylander-Marner-XXXXX or XXXXX-Nylander-Marner or Nylander-XXXXX-Marner so we either need a top wing prospect or centre prospect (Matthews) next year.

The real miss... was Dougie Hamilton...

Defencemen take longer to develop, imagine how bright our future would look if we had been able to get him alongside Rielly, even if it cost us Marner. Toronto management needs to stop acting like chickens with their heads cut off, and target somebody who compliments a Morgan Rielly long term. Took Edmonton way too long to figure that out.

 

[Tak7]

The real miss... was Dougie Hamilton...

Defencemen take longer to develop, imagine how bright our future would look if we had been able to get him alongside Rielly, even if it cost us Marner. Toronto management needs to stop acting like chickens with their heads cut off, and target somebody who compliments a Morgan Rielly long term. Took Edmonton way too long to figure that out.

Bruce Arthur made a really good point on TSN's FA coverage today - we've seen in the last week, trades like Hamilton and Saad, which show that the threat of offer sheets & cap management means that core players DO still move in the NHL.

You just need to make sure you have the assets to be able to acquire them.

 

[Kamiccolo]

The real miss... was Dougie Hamilton...

Defencemen take longer to develop, imagine how bright our future would look if we had been able to get him alongside Rielly, even if it cost us Marner. Toronto management needs to stop acting like chickens with their heads cut off, and target somebody who compliments a Morgan Rielly long term. Took Edmonton way too long to figure that out.

What? Marner for Hamilton?

Dear lord. Hamilton is a #3 with the upside of being a good #2. Marner has franchise forward potential.

We have at least two years of sucking. We need a top line winger, a franchise D, and maybe another potential #1 C.

One of those pieces will need to be acquired in a trade.

 

[leafsfuture]

Lol @ even thinking about Provorov at 4.

Not sure whats so funny about that lol.

You probably said:
Lol @ even thinking about Johansen at 4
Lol @ even thinking about Schiefele at 7
Lol @ even thinking about OEL at 6

 

[Maple Leaf]

Not sure whats so funny about that lol.

You probably said:
Lol @ even thinking about Johansen at 4
Lol @ even thinking about Schiefele at 7
Lol @ even thinking about OEL at 6

Provorov will be better than Hanifin. Book it.

 

[SprDaVE]

With a lot of highly skilled prospects, I think the attention definitely turns to trying to draft, trade for and develop high end defenders.

 

[Canada4Gold]

Well we just started a rebuild and we have a Morgan Rielly in our back pocket. There's a good chance we'll get at least 1 more. I'd bet Chychrun is our target for next years draft, and we're going to be bad for at least 1 more year after that. Plenty of time to add to Rielly.

We have more forward prospects, but a team has twice as many forwards as D so that's not entirely unexpected at this point. We still need to add forwards too, it's not like the rebuild is over and we have 1 D and 10 forwards, we're not the Oilers.

 

[PJJ]

we have Rielly.. we need a nice 6'2+ #2 Dman now. Too bad we couldn't get Jacob Larsson.

If Matthews isn't available next year and Chychrun is, then by all means take him.

 

[Canada4Gold]

Not sure whats so funny about that lol.

You probably said:
Lol @ even thinking about Johansen at 4
Lol @ even thinking about Schiefele at 7
Lol @ even thinking about OEL at 6

good job using Hindsight bias.

Lol @ Schenn at 5
Lol @ Hickey at 4
Lol @ Glennie at 8

it works both ways

 

[Kamiccolo]

Devils advocate...

We already have a long term signed top pairing RD..

Maybe that's why he isn't moved, incase we draft 1st OA (and take Matthews) or after 2nd (and take a C/W).

 

[MastuhNinks]

'Glaring need'? Really? Two weeks ago the Leafs had what most would consider a below average prospect pool, now that we have some great forward prospects people are panicking that we need an elite defensemen prospect?

 

[Rude Dog]

Yes I agree that why I was shocked they didn't Hanifin this year.

That's why I was really upset when Pouliot wasn't part of the Kessel deal. Thought he could be a top pairing guy. Pens must think so too.

 

[BlueBaron]

This just in, we have a glaring need for elite players in every position.

 

[Leafs87]

I see huge potential in percy

 

[WTFMAN99]

Kessel is gone, and rumour has it Bozak is gone too, I think we should be in the running for a Chyrchun, or Brown...or Matthews...