Former Toronto Maple Leaf flames organization for how they develop players
Former Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman highlights a real issue that has plagued the franchise for a long time, drafting.
Former Toronto Maple Leafs defender and current co-host on Canada's TSN 1050 radio station First Up, Carlo Colaiacovo highlights a real problem that has really hurt the franchise. The Maple Leafs have really failed at developing strong defensive prospects.
Over the last decade Toronto has developed one steady top four defenceman in Morgan Rielly. No other blueliner in the organization has come close to his progression.
Toronto's model has been focused on the "core four" consisting of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and John Tavares. Toronto is an offensive juggernaut but soley lacks on the back end. Colaiacovo criticized the franchise's inability to develop top-end defenceman.
"When you put yourself in a position to build a salary structure with your team where you're going to build around four forwards, and its going to occupy a large percentage of your cap, almost half of your cap, how the heck organizationally, you did not decide to draft and develop a stud defenceman is beyond me.
It is hard to argue Colaiacovo's point, with the data sharing the same story. Since Rielly was selected in 2012, Toronto have selected 30 defenceman from 2012-2019 with only four playing more than fifteen NHL regular season games.
Toronto recently selected Ben Danford with the 31st pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. The franchise must really like what they see in him, as they recently signed him last week to a three-year entry-level contract.
Source: HockeyDB
It is hard to argue Colaiacovo's point, with the data sharing the same story. Since Rielly was selected in 2012, Toronto have selected 30 defenceman from 2012-2019 with only four playing more than fifteen NHL regular season games.
Toronto recently selected Ben Danford with the 31st pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. The franchise must really like what they see in him, as they recently signed him last week to a three-year entry-level contract.
Source: HockeyDB
| POLL | ||
Do you think Toronto's inabliity to develop stud defenceman has held the franchise back? | ||
| Yes, the data doesn't lie is a huge issue | 56 | 86.2 % |
| No, biggest roadblock has been the playoff demons | 9 | 13.8 % |
| List of polls | ||
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