To be fair to Morrison lets actually analyze his draft history.
In the one draft, he didn't have Burke or Nonis to answer (who many claim led him astray), which is possible. He took Luke Schenn at 5, but in fairness to him, he also took Anton Stralman in the 7th. If Stralman was a 5th overall pick and had his career, it'd be a solid single. Outside of that, nothing of significance happened. Under Burke and Nonis, he could hit on top 10 picks, with Kadri, Rielly, and Nylander. Past that, it was an unmitigated disaster for the most part. Outside of having some Bergman picks bail him out (Johansson, Komarov, and Gunnarson), he had one very good hit with Connor Brown in the 6th. But, in most cases, whenever he wasn't picking in the top 10, it was a mess. Biggs, Percy, and Gauthier all in the 20 to 30 range. Matt Finn, Jesse Blacker, Brad Ross, Kenny Ryan, and Jimmy Hayes in the 2nd. Now, I don't expect guys to hit on every pick. But, he produced one guy who is a legitimate NHLer in the 20-60 range, and at his best is a 3rd liner, who is a journeyman. Now, do I think Burke set a mandate that likely led to us drafting girt guys like Biggs, Brad Ross, and Kenny Ryan? Absolutely. But, he also missed on non-grit picks in that range, in Finn, Blacker, Percy, and Gauthier (he's sort of middle ground). The only significant hits he had were from the European side (but he still deserves credit). The two best NA players drafted outside the top 10 is Connor Brown, the next best Matt Frattin, Jimmy Hayes and Josh Leivo. Another thing is, look at how Anaheim drafted when Burke was there, they had similar issues.
The main takeaway is, while Burke may be at fault, but arguably the biggest miss on the resume is probably drafting a guy who turned into a bottom pairing defender 5th overall, which happened pre-Burke. Although Biggs busted in impressive fashion I'd say the odds of a player outright busting in the 20s, is probably significantly higher than not getting at least a top 9 forward, top 4 d or starting goalie in the top 5.
Hopefully, for our sake, the issues with the drafts from 2007 until 2014, were mandate issues or the incompetence of scouts below him.
To put it in perspective, in Hunter's 3-year reign, we have probably drafted a better player than Morrison did in 20-40 range over around 10. Although, if you want, you can make an argument Morrison was still our Director of Amateur Scouting for the 2015 draft, as the scouting purge didn't officially happen until July of 2015. Although, I doubt his opinion meant much at that draft, as Mark and Hofford were clearly the guys running the draft.
So, as a fan, let's hope that Morrison's issues were more mandate based and that he actually had a say in the 2015 draft. But, it is pretty troubling that in 3 drafts, having a total of 4 picks between 20-60, he drafted a player better than Morrison did in 8. You can explain away some of that mess by the fact Burke and Leafs management constantly traded 2nd round picks, which gave him fewer bullets. Now, Hunter never had a late-round pick like Stralman and to a lesser extent Brown or even Johansson (but these guys could take awhile to emerge). Also, keep in mind, from 2000 to 2004 (prior to Morrison even being on the staff), we did very well in the 20-60 range. Drafting a very good player in Steen, a guy who got 1000 NHL games (even if he's a 4th liner for a bunch of them) in Stajan, and Brad Boyes (a solid but not spectacular player who was a journeyman), in 6 picks. In the time between Morrison actually being on the staff but not being the Director of Scouting, we took Tuukka Rask in the 20-60 range. We also took Tlutsy at 13.
