https://theathletic.com/4629663/2023/06/29/nhl-draft-2023-winners-losers/
He has the Leafs as losers. They’re joined by Montreal, Arizona, and Boston
*Losers: Teams I believe will regret taking the player(s) they chose.*
**Toronto Maple Leafs**
*Easton Cowan was high. He’s a good player. He’s a plus-level skater and worker with more skill than the point totals suggest. He was excellent in London’s playoff run playing with Denver Barkey and Ryan Winterton on their top line. But he was still high, and the expectation was that he was going to be a second-round pick (I think that was his own expectation, even).*
*I didn’t rank overage Providence commit Hudson Malinoski, but he was a driver for Brooks in the AJHL this season, he’s got pro size and athleticism, and there’s a belief among some that he’s got the tools to potentially become a bottom-sixer in the NHL.*
*I’d be pretty surprised if their third and last pick, Noah Chadwick, becomes more than an AHL defenceman. He’s got pro size and more to give offensively than his low-end statistical profile indicates (he’s actually quite comfortable with the puck on his stick), though.*
Here are the 4 tiers
**Winners:** Teams I believe won out over their competition with consistent, sleuth, home-run-level selections relative to where they picked. (Columbus, San Jose, Seattle, Philadelphia)
**Overtime winners:** Teams I believe did well with where they were slotted, even if they might not have picked the exact player(s) I would have. (Chicago, Carolina, Vegas, St. Louis, Nashville, Washington, Buffalo, Calgary, NYR, Winnipeg, Tampa Bay, Los Angeles, Colorado)
**Overtime losers:** Teams I believe could have done better but might, in time, be happy with their pick(s) regardless. (Detroit, Anaheim, Vancouver, Minnesota, New Jersey, NYI, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, Florida, Dallas, Edmonton)
**Losers:** Teams I believe will regret taking the player(s) they chose. (Montreal, Arizona, Toronto, Boston)
by malliabu
13 Comments
After the middle of the 1st round there isn’t that much difference between those players and the 2nd round guys. Let’s all pretend we’ve been watching these kids all play the past 2 years and not basing our opinion off a Bob Mackenzie ranking article.
I mean Cowan went 28th. Saying the expectation was he should have been a 2nd round pick needs to be more specific cause that could be just 4 picks…LOL.
At the end of the day the Leafs had no 2nd/3rd/4th RP to even see if they could get him outside the 1st.
If the player was near the top of your list then you take him with the pick you have. They probably tried to trade down but you would need another team willing to trade up and there wasn’t much of that happening this draft.
It’s a young player who took a big leap in the second half of the season and playoffs. Not the safest pick for sure but a loser? Jesus.
I don’t think this should come as a surprise.
Not a ton of picks, big swing in the 1st, and then two “safe “ picks at the bottom.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It’s hard to characterize the Leafs as a winner or a loser when they only had 1 pick in the top 150.
It’s basically a crapshoot after pick 15 anyway. Clearly there was something about him they liked, from what I hear he has a great attitude and is a very hard worker. This organization could use some of that if I’m being honest.
Let’s revisit this in 2028.
The only way you can judge winners/losers is if you think you know more than the teams doing the drafting.
I don’t think Wheeler knows more than the Leafs scouting department.
Friendly reminder. no one knows shit about how these players will turn out. Id recommend going through [HockeyDB](https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/index.html) drafts by year. Go look at how many 5th/6th rounders have played NHL games. Every pick is just a crap shoot 90% of the time.
These articles are useless unless they come from 5 years in the future.
“Easton Cowan was high” In he first line is all I needed to hear.
This is what happens with limited draft capital. We keep fielding mediocre playoff team at the expense of the future and sign regular season stud for playoff duds. Getting sick of this…
These are so dumb. Let’s see in 4 years.