For two major reasons, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 2023 draft story will be more about the club’s present than its future.
Because the former general manager left swinging from heels, the team will fly to Nashville with a scant three picks to make, and just one of consequence: a first-rounder, a fifth-rounder, and a sixth-rounder. A splashy prospect addition isn’t in the cards.
Further, Toronto is still firmly in its competitive window. And with star forwards Auston Matthews and William Nylander one season away from cap-strangling raises and 11 impending free agents on the June roster, new GM Brad Treliving is under immediate pressure to fill out a lineup that can compete for the Atlantic Division crown.
Treliving’s to-do list in the NHL’s newsiest season is crowded with hirings (an assistant coach to replace Spencer Carbery, more support staff), re-signings (Matthews? Nylander? Ilya Samsonov? Noel Acciari? Luke Schenn?), free-agent courting, and — hopefully — trades.
The executive will be forced to conduct his draft business over the phone, however, because his former employer, the Calgary Flames, is enacting the spite clause and preventing participation on the draft floor.
“We have an excellent head scout in Wes Clark [and]an excellent scouring team,” Leafs president Brendan Shanahan said during Treliving’s introductory press conference. “They are still doing their job. They are preparing. That part won’t change.”
Neither will Treliving, whose pulse is driven by the big deal.
He is forever in the mix when it comes to the general managers’ hot stove and is enthused by the opportunity to marry his vision with the Leafs’ gifted core.
Technically, bold deals can be struck any time. But with the salary cap expected to rise just $1 million, executives will be hammering out their biggest bits of business in the next 10 days, so they know how much they can spend in free agency.
Draft week should be our first peek at where Treliving is steering this ship.
DRAFT PICKS
POTENTIAL ROUND 1 OPTIONS
When Kyle Dubas clawed back a late first-rounder (Boston’s, via Washington) in the Rasmus Sandin deadline deal, the former GM was quick to announce a willingness to trade the 28th pick in Nashville to help the club’s more immediate future.
Does Treliving take the same approach?
Or does he rifle through the bare cupboards Dubas left him with and start stocking?
Treliving appears to have hit with his 20-something choices in recent drafts, selecting Jakob Pelletier 26th (2019) and Connor Zary 24th (2020).
Trading the pick will always be a justifiable option —Matthews is entering a contract year, and we need to win now! — but drawing high-end young talent into the system isn’t the worst idea. Especially when you step back and realize the Leafs have already dealt away their 2024 second-round pick and their 2025 first-, second-, and fourth-round choices.
The Leafs aren’t deep enough prospect-wise to be positionally choosy.
Some highly regarded names who to be kicking around at the tail end of Round 1 include right-shot defenceman Oliver Bonk (OHL London); big centre Calum Ritchie (OHL Oshawa); power forwards Danil But (Yaroslavl) and Kasper Halttunen (Finland); and dynamic, playmaking pivot Riley Heidt (WHL Prince George).
LAST YEAR’S FIRST PICK
At the 2022 draft, former GM Kyle Dubas traded out of the first round, shedding goalie Petr Mrazek’s bad contract to Chicago in exchange for the 38th-overall pick: Fraser Minten.
The Vancouver native will celebrate his 19th birthday next month and return for a fourth season with the Kamloops Blazers in 2023-24.
Impressed by the playmaking 6-foot-1 centreman’s character and hockey IQ, Toronto invited Minten to NHL training camp last fall and wasted no time signing him to his entry-level contract.
“A very heady player. Smart. Just a joy to be around,” said captain John Tavares, who began skating with Minten shortly after the ’22 draft. “Great kid. I think we got a good one in him.”
Minten threw down career numbers with the Blazers in 2022-23 — 31 goals, 36 assists and a plus-24 rating in 57 games — and earned some Memorial Cup experience skating for the host city.
Assistant GM Hayley Wickenheiser has raved about the prospect’s maturity and consistency, praising his improved shot and eagerness to improve.
Minten needs to bulk up and get faster, but he was always seen as a patient project.
As Blazers stars Logan Stankoven (Dallas) and Caedan Bankier (Minnesota) graduate to the pros, Minten will be given even more responsibility next season.
So far, he looks like a keeper.
And coach Sheldon Keefe is “extremely impressed” by Minten’s composure and enthusiasm.
“He’s extremely competitive and doesn’t mind getting involved in the physical part of the game. Very smart positionally,” Keefe said. “He’s a worker. Asks good questions.
“He’s just got a maturity to his game that you don’t find often coming fresh out of the draft, especially when you get out of the top half of the first round.”
ONE BOLD PREDICTION FOR THE DRAFT
Treliving puts his first stamp on the Maple Leafs roster not with the type of player he targets in the draft but with the trade(s) he makes sing in Music City.
Our guess: Treliving surveys the UFA defence market — eight years times $6.25 million for Damon Severson, eh? — and instead tries to strike a trade for a top-four defender (Brett Pesce out of Carolina? Noah Hanifin from Calgary?).
We predict the Leafs will be linked in whispers for edgy wingers (Tom Wilson, Travis Konecny) and No. 1 goalies (Juuse Saros) as well.
That’s not to say everyone on the market will become a Maple Leaf. But the new GM will complete at least one transaction that steals headlines and gives fans a reason to trust 2023-24 could feel different.
