Photo Credit: Nick Barden, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Kyle Dubas Strikes Out
Instead of wasting their picks looking for bottom of the roster duds, the Toronto Maple Leafs draft strategy is designed to find top line studs: Boom or bust type prospect players that are either stars, or will never play in the NHL at all.
In order to increase his odds in hitting the equivalent of the draft lottery, Toronto Maple Leafs general manager, Kyle Dubas, has been known to trade down to amass a larger number of picks.
This is a tried and true method of operating and has been proven to be effective.
If you do it right.
Oh What A Tangled Web We Weave
Follow along, if you can:
At the 2015 NHL entry draft, while acting as interim co-GM along with Mark Hunter, Kyle Dubas, through a pair of trades with the Philadelphia Flyers and Columbus Blue Jackets, traded down from his first round pick, 24th overall, to the 34th, 61st, and 68th overall picks.
Clutching his riches of draft pick lottery tickets, Kyle then drafted Travis Dermott with the 34th overall pick, and two duds that never played in the NHL with the remaining two.
Travis Dermott is a good young defenseman currently playing for the Vancouver Canucks after being traded for a 3rd round pick last year.
That 3rd round pick was then packaged up with 2x2nd for Mark Giordano.
Six Picks For The Oldest Player In The League
When the dust finally settled, at the end of the day we find the Toronto Maple Leafs with the old moo-cow slab'o'beef in the back end, a player they could have signed in the offseason for free.
And did.
Philadelphia drafted Travis Konecny with the 24th overall pick, a player who has gone on to record 320 points in 471 games with the Flyers.
Oh yeah, and the kicker?
Carolina selected Sebastian Aho at 35th that year.
D'oh!
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