Glaring need for an Elite D prospect

[firstemperor]

Here is where a Noah Hanifin would check those boxes.

Now we will have to find another way to address that.

It depends how you view Hanifin. Some see him a safe pick with a lower ceiling than others. Some see him as an elite D prospect.

 

[Faltorvo]

Why? If we didn't draft Marner we would have had a question mark beside 1C. We don't anymore now that we drafted him so now we got to find ourselves an elite D prospect.

we don't have a check beside #1 C , we have one for undersized #1 RW

 

[seanlinden]

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.

I think you're drastically underrating Hamilton's upside.

 

[Lubo]

we don't have a check beside #1 C , we have one for undersized #1 RW

TBL blew up the concept of needing a traditional #1C to be successful with TJ this season. Even Palat took over #1C duties in the SCF.

Stamkos was not fulfilling this role either come playoff time (played alot on the wing).

A #1 stud D now on the other hand ...

 

[Bobs your uncle]

Good grief. After months of reading about how "Elite" Kessel was and how great his returns would be I had hoped I'd never see that misused term again.
About acquiring this defenseman, the Leafs need help everywhere but that is what a rebuild is about.
Rebuilds also require patience, get used years of pain, frustrations & disappointments. The Leafs will get this "elite" defenseman but most likely is years away.
Get used to it.

 

[Saul Goodman]

Provorov would have been ideal. That's okay, we have another 2 or 3 drafts to go to find some high end defensemen.

 

[Lebanese Leaf]

TBL blew up the concept of needing a traditional #1C to be successful with TJ this season. Even Palat took over #1C duties in the SCF.

Stamkos was not fulfilling this role either come playoff time (played alot on the wing).

A #1 stud D now on the other hand ...

I'm sorry I missed the part where Tampa won the cup. Are we going to use the 2011 Canucks as a model too? They got even closer than Tampa did to actually winning the cup.

And why is 21 year old Morgan Rielly being totally discounted as a #1D in this thread?

 

[Drew311]

Leafs are now completely stacked in skilled forwards. If need be, they can likely trade a top end forward prospect for a top end defensive prospect in the future.

 

[LV*]

Chychrun in my eyes is a better prospect than Hanifin. I haven't been this excited for a prospect since Hedman or Doughty.

This is what I've been posting. Chychrun is the best D prospect I have ever seen tbh.

Next shea weber's = Ekblad < Chychrun

 

[Apotheosis]

This is what I've been posting. Chychrun is the best D prospect I have ever seen tbh.

Next shea weber's = Ekblad < Chychrun

He's truly a man amongst boys. He's got ridiculous hockey IQ and his body for his age is just... insane. I honestly think he'll be even better than Ekblad.

 

[officialmark*]

Hanifin... We already have a surplus of wingers, plus you build teams around C/D. Marners nice I guess, and will set us back another year since he's going to take longer than Strome/Hanifin to develop so it gives us an extra year to pick high. Whatever.

 

[DD03]

I feel like if we drafted Hanifin, the same thread pops up except we need elite prospects on F.

Look at LA's defense. Only ONE elite defender and they win the Cup. Look at Boston's too. Chara and then depth.

And if we're 1st overall next year, there's no way, and I mean no way, you pass on Mathews.

 

[p.l.f.]

We'll get one thru the draft, Maybe 2 over the next 4 yrs

 

[King Leaf]

We really do, I think we're one big forward and one big D away from having a really terrific core. I'm hoping to snag Chychrun and Brown next draft.

 

[Gabriel426]

To me, you can get elite defense men in the 2nd round or later, look at Weber, Keith, Subban and Giordano.

 

[StatsNightHero]

Having another top D would be massive. A true franchise D can make nearly any NHL calibre D partner look like twice the player. And it would let us load up a line when we partner Rielly with him. Top D can play 30 mins a night when you need them to and still be effective. If we can add two more top D prospects you could have at least one on the ice at all times and sometimes 2. Obviously we still need a top C but given how bad this team is we should be able to add either a D or C in the top 10 of the draft for the next 3 years. Then we'll have a core even Edmonton will envy and they'll all be within about 5 years age wise.
Nylander xxxx -kapanen
Brown - marner- bracco
Leipsic- gauthier- Johnson

Reilly- xxx
Gardner-xxxx

2d and a true 1st line C and you've got a formidable core there. There's also quite a few promising mid round prospects who could overtake some of those guys penciled in to the top 6. And there's Phaneuf, JVR, Kadri and to some extant Lupul and bozak, all who can be used to help acquire the missing pieces or more assurance pieces when some prospects don't wrk out.

 

[cupcrazyman]

omg he missed 30 games in a season !!! bust!!

Pavel Zacha missed 31 out of 68 reg games here in Sarnia

 

[ACC1224]

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

That high in the draft you take the BPA not by needed position. Although in this case the BPA also fills this Teams biggest need.

 

[Duke16]

Having another top D would be massive. A true franchise D can make nearly any NHL calibre D partner look like twice the player. And it would let us load up a line when we partner Rielly with him. Top D can play 30 mins a night when you need them to and still be effective. If we can add two more top D prospects you could have at least one on the ice at all times and sometimes 2. Obviously we still need a top C but given how bad this team is we should be able to add either a D or C in the top 10 of the draft for the next 3 years. Then we'll have a core even Edmonton will envy and they'll all be within about 5 years age wise.
Nylander xxxx -kapanen
Brown - marner- bracco
Leipsic- gauthier- Johnson

Reilly- xxx
Gardner-xxxx

2d and a true 1st line C and you've got a formidable core there. There's also quite a few promising mid round prospects who could overtake some of those guys penciled in to the top 6. And there's Phaneuf, JVR, Kadri and to some extant Lupul and bozak, all who can be used to help acquire the missing pieces or more assurance pieces when some prospects don't wrk out.

That is how I see our future forward core as well, we now have too many forwards because I think Timashov, Dzierkals and Korostelev will be top 9 forwards in some capacity if all works out. This isn't a bad problem to have however.

 

[PJJ]

Gauthier shouldn't be any higher than the 4th line..

 

[Rufio65*]

omg he missed 30 games in a season !!! bust!!

Well he missed the OHL cup the year before with a shoulder injury..and he missed the playoffs this year. Good player, but I think that he over trains and is going to continue to be a china doll. If he gets injured this year he shouldn't be a top 20 pick. Period.

 

[Bullseye]

We need a stud centre and a stud d-man in the next drafts

Tampa is the model for I think - but we a re no-where close to them.

We don't have a Stamkos down the middle and we don't have a Hedman style d-man.

We do have the Tyler Johnsons - a few of them - and we may have some Anton Stralmans now hopefully these players will carry the mail until we can find our Stamkos our Hedman.

 

[BlueBaron]

Having another top D would be massive. A true franchise D can make nearly any NHL calibre D partner look like twice the player. And it would let us load up a line when we partner Rielly with him. Top D can play 30 mins a night when you need them to and still be effective. If we can add two more top D prospects you could have at least one on the ice at all times and sometimes 2. Obviously we still need a top C but given how bad this team is we should be able to add either a D or C in the top 10 of the draft for the next 3 years. Then we'll have a core even Edmonton will envy and they'll all be within about 5 years age wise.
Nylander xxxx -kapanen
Brown - marner- bracco
Leipsic- gauthier- Johnson

Reilly- xxx
Gardner-xxxx

2d and a true 1st line C and you've got a formidable core there. There's also quite a few promising mid round prospects who could overtake some of those guys penciled in to the top 6. And there's Phaneuf, JVR, Kadri and to some extant Lupul and bozak, all who can be used to help acquire the missing pieces or more assurance pieces when some prospects don't wrk out.

While I love your optimism some of those forwards are not going to work out. I'm all about being positive but I think you guys are setting yourselves up for disappointment.

I am of the mind we have 2 near lock impact NHLers in our system. Marner and Nylander. We have several others who look like NHLers Percy, Brown and Kapanen and then a whole lot of maybes. Not saying I don't like our draft or prospect but more will fail than succeed.

We really just need the best players, wing is probably the only position we don't have to worry about even if one of the golden boys plays centre. I think we could safely say we need an elite G, D and C in the next few years (even if Marner becomes a #1 C we will need another).

I'm sure we will just keep draft BPA for the next couple years.

 

[gabeliscious]

leafs have quit a few promising defensive prospects. the issue is that they are almost all lefties.


as for the roster, i think we have more then enough time to track down a right handed stud. leafs are going to take ~3+ years to start to show results. with the theme of acquiring draft picks it is only a matter of time,

 

[Brown Dog]

Reilly will be 1D. And I still believe in Gardiner to be a solid 2nd pairing guy.