Today in “The Toronto Maple Leafs are bad at drafting” we look at the third round picks over the years. We’re just going to jump right into things here and get to the meat of the issue: The Maple Leafs being bad at this whole third round of the draft thing.
The Maple Leafs once again favour defenders and centres as their picks of choice, but goalies rocket up for four overall in rounds one and two to nine here in round three. Two of them became names in the NHL - Ken Wregget (1982) and Allan Bester (1983) both played over 200 games for the Maple Leafs. The other three who played games include Peter Ing and two of the “goalies of the future” from my lifetime: Mikael Tellqvist (2000) and (sigh) Justin Pogge (2004).
What’s that? The OHL was the most popular league in the world to draft from? Duh, of course it is. The surprising part here though is that the QMJHL came in second. Not surprising is that the Q players were all busts, with only Yanic Perreault (1991) making a difference and playing over 150 games for the Leafs.
Overall the third round isn’t great, but that’s probably par for the course for all teams. Seven players played over 100 games as a Maple Leaf, including future NHL coach Bruce Boudreau. On average a Maple Leafs third round pick will play 50 games for the Leafs, score five goals and add 12 assists for 19 points. If we only include players who made it to the Leafs, it jumps to 97 games, nine goals and 23 assists for 32 points. Wheeeee!
The most successful picks the Maple Leafs have made in round three however, came from the early years of the draft. In 1966 they drafted defender Rick Ley who would play in 228 games for the Leafs. In 1964 they brought in Mike Pelyk who would suit up in blue and white for 441 games. The best third rounder the Leafs ever picked was their very first one, Jim McKenny in 1963.
McKenny played 594 games on the Maple Leafs blue line, scoring 81 goals and adding 246 assists for 327 points. He just missed out on winning the Stanley Cup with the Leafs, but would go on to be one of the Leafs top defenders in the 1970’s.
Here is the complete list of Maple Leafs third round picks.
Round Three
| Round | Player | Postition | Draft Year | NHL GP | Goals | Assists | Points | PM | From | GAA | SV% | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Konstantin Kalmikov | RW | 1996 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | COHL | |||
| 3 | Jeff Farkas | C | 1997 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | NCAA | |||
| 3 | Carter Verheaghe | C | 2013 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | OHL | |||
| 3 | Greg McKegg | C | 2010 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | OHL | |||
| 3 | John McIntyre | C | 1987 | 72 | 5 | 15 | 20 | 142 | OHL | |||
| 3 | Ernie Godden | C | 1981 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | OHL | |||
| 3 | Mark Kirton | C | 1978 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | OHL | |||
| 3 | Bruce Boudreau | C | 1975 | 134 | 27 | 42 | 69 | 44 | OHL | |||
| 3 | Gavin Kirk | C | 1971 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | OHL | |||
| 3 | Phil Oreskovic | D | 2005 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 21 | OHL | |||
| 3 | Brendan Bell | D | 2001 | 32 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 19 | OHL | |||
| 3 | Jay Harrison | D | 2001 | 20 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 18 | OHL | |||
| 3 | Mike Lankshear | D | 1996 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | OHL | |||
| 3 | Sean Boland | D | 1986 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | OHL | |||
| 3 | Fred Boimistruck | D | 1980 | 83 | 4 | 14 | 18 | 45 | OHL | |||
| 3 | Ralph Hopiavouri | D | 1971 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | OHL | |||
| 3 | Rick Ley | D | 1966 | 228 | 8 | 54 | 62 | 416 | OHL | |||
| 3 | Jim McKenny | D | 1963 | 594 | 81 | 246 | 327 | 292 | OHL | |||
| 3 | Peter Ing | G | 1988 | 59 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | OHL | 3.95 | 0.88 | 1 |
| 3 | Allan Bester | G | 1983 | 205 | 0 | 8 | 8 | 30 | OHL | 4.06 | 0.882 | 7 |
| 3 | Josh Leivo | LW | 2011 | 57 | 10 | 12 | 22 | 20 | OHL | |||
| 3 | Jamie Devane | LW | 2009 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | OHL | |||
| 3 | Dale Mitchell | RW | 2007 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | OHL | |||
| 3 | Ryan Pepperall | RW | 1995 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | OHL | |||
| 3 | Gerry O'Flaherty | RW | 1970 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | OHL | |||
| 3 | Mike Pelyk | D | 1964 | 441 | 26 | 88 | 114 | 566 | Ont Midget | |||
| 3 | Nicolas Corbeil | C | 2001 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | QMJHL | |||
| 3 | Yanic Perreault | C | 1991 | 176 | 54 | 69 | 123 | 90 | QMJHL | |||
| 3 | Normand Aubin | C | 1979 | 69 | 18 | 13 | 31 | 30 | QMJHL | |||
| 3 | Dominic D'Amour | D | 2002 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | QMJHL | |||
| 3 | Denis Deslauriers | D | 1972 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | QMJHL | |||
| 3 | Jean-Francois Racine | G | 2000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | QMJHL | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Alain Belanger | RW | 1976 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 | QMJHL | |||
| 3 | Gary McFadyen | RW | 1976 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | QMJHL | |||
| 3 | Martins Dzierkals | RW | 2015 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Russia Jrs | |||
| 3 | Mikael Tellqvist | G | 2000 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | SHL | 3.01 | 0.895 | 2 |
| 3 | Fredrik Modin | LW | 1994 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | SHL | |||
| 3 | Larry McIntyre | D | 1969 | 41 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 26 | SJHL | |||
| 3 | Martin Sagat | LW | 2003 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Slovakia | |||
| 3 | Sondre Olden | RW | 2010 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Sweden Jrs | |||
| 3 | Per-Arne Alexandersson | C | 1974 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Sweden-1 | |||
| 3 | JD Greenway | D | 2016 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | USNTDP | |||
| 3 | Joseph Woll | G | 2016 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | USNTDP | |||
| 3 | Andrew Nielsen | D | 2015 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | WHL | |||
| 3 | Rinat Valiev | D | 2014 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | WHL | |||
| 3 | Justin Pogge | G | 2004 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | WHL | 4.36 | 0.844 | 0 |
| 3 | Todd Ford | G | 2002 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | WHL | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Jamie Hodson | G | 1998 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | WHL | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Ken Wregget | G | 1982 | 200 | 0 | 13 | 13 | 106 | WHL | 4.35 | 0.871 | 2 |
| 3 | Dave Thomlinson | LW | 1985 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | WHL |
