Stephen
Moderator
- Feb 28, 2002
- 78,996
- 53,919
With Grigorenko's stock falling down, I remember Galchenyuk really being the only guy on the draft who has that true #1 Center potential that the Leafs were desperately looking for. Not having a true #1 Center really overshadowed all of the Leafs other needs back then, even acquiring that elusive top 4 RHD was an afterthought during those times.
I remember my thought process at the time was we needed to move on from Mikhail Grabovski as a top 6 center and to kickstart the rebuild with a Mikhail Grigorenko, Alex Galchenyuk or Filip Forsberg. Didn’t want Trouba or Dumba. Didn’t even think about Morgan Rielly as an option. Completely off the radar.