Toronto Maple Leafs

Leafs Go With Size In 2008

If you had to pick one word to describe the Leafs direction of the future, I’d go with size. Every one of the 8 players selected in the 2008 draft was over 6 feet in height, and all of them will be around 200 lbs when they finally push to reach the NHL. Read on for a more complete description of their draft picks from Saturday.

At 63rd overall the Leafs may have one of the steals of the draft, having selected sizable Right Winger, and Massachusetts native, Jimmy Hayes from the Lincoln Stars of the USHL. Hayes was actually pre-ranked as one of the top 5 North American skaters by NHL central scouting after playing 2 seasons with the USA Under-18 National Development Program at Ann Arbor, Michigan. He actually barely missed the cut off age for draft eligibility last season, and decided to return to the US-NTDP as an over-age player. He posted 23 goals and 43 points with the under 18 team in 2006-07, but struggled upon his return this past year. Eventually his relationship with the program soured a bit as the development program questioned whether or not he should be developing with players his own age, and he dropped to a NHL central scouting ranking of 63rd overall in North America.

He’ll provide the Leafs with good size of the wing, standing 6′4″ and 210 lbs. Hayes has committed to play for 2008 NCAA Champions, Boston College, next season after putting up 4 goals and 11 assists for 15 points, along with a nice +9 rating, in 21 games during the regular season at Lincoln, after joining them mid season. That was followed up by a strong post season showing of 4 goals and 5 assists for 9 points in 8 playoff games, tying him for 2nd on the team. He actually roomed at the scouting combine with top American prospect Colin Wilson, and similarly to Wilson, he strongly values his physical conditioning.

That being said, he doesn’t consider himself an overly physical player, but more a skilled player who likes to make good use of his size. He is considered a quick learner, eager to improve and impress coaches. He has been described by former teammates at the US-NTDP as being amazingly hard to move off the puck, and was considered a dominating and unselfish power forward. If blood lines have anything to do with how he pans out, Leafs fans will be glad to hear that ex-leaf Tom Fitzgerald, and one of the proto-typical power forwards of the past NHL generation, Keith Tkachuk, are both Hayes’ cousins. In fact, Hayes says he patterns his game after that of Tkachuk. Hopefully Leafs fans can look forward to solid contributions from Jimmy in the future.

At 98th overall the Leafs selected Mikhail Stefanovich, a Centre for the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL. Stefanovich is another sizable forward, listed at 6′2″ and 202 lbs. The Belarussian scored 32 goals and had 34 assists for 66 points in 62 games as a rookie in the Q.

He was ranked 32nd overall by TSN, 57th overall in North America by NHL central scouting, the ISS had him ranked 57th, Red Line Report ranked him 33rd, and McKeen’s ranked him 39th, and the Hockey News had him 20th. The closest comparable that TSN felt it could make was Frank Mahovlich, which should be welcome news to Leafs fans. Another burly power forward, with a solid shot and good stick-handling skills, is just what the Leafs could use. More skill, and more toughness up front.

On the downside, Stefanovich’s work ethic has been called into question repeatedly, and his inconsistency apparently scared away teams from selecting him higher in the draft.

The Leafs had picks 128, 129, and 130, which is amazingly unique. With those 3 picks they selected Greg Pateryn, Joel Champagne, and Jerome Flaake.

Pateryn is another large, physical Defenseman (6′2″, 212 lbs) who played with the Ohio Junior Blue Jackets of the USHL last year but has signed a letter of intent to play for Michigan University in the fall. He put up 3 goals and 27 points in 60 games, and had 145 PIMs, indicating a good amount of sand paper in his game.

Joel Champagne, is a large Centre (6′4″, 210 lbs) from Chicoutimi of the QMJHL, who was ranked 73rd overall amongst NA skaters by central scouting. He has good hands, and is a solid stick handler who is hard to knock off the puck. He needs to improve his skating to make the next step, so look to see if he can improve his foot speed over the next few years.

Jerome Flaake was the top ranked prospect out of Germany this year, and was ranked 41st of all the European skaters by CSB. Another big player, the Left Winger stands 6′2″ and 190 lbs or so. He scored 6 points in 6 games for the Germans at the WJC in 2006-07, and had 3 points in 6 games at the WJC in 2007-08, and another 6 points in 5 games at the U-20 World Championships this past year also. He played 30 games for Koln (Cologne for those of you who want the English translations) in the DEL, which is a MEN’S LEAGUE, and had 1 assist and no goals in 30 games. His size projects well if he can fill out a bit, but the Leafs need to give him an opportunity to polish his game further.

At 158th the Leafs selected Grant Rollheiser, a goaltender who played for the Trail Smoke Eaters of the BCHL last season. He is going to be one of 3 goaltenders playing for Boston University next year, and he brings yet more size to the crease in the Leafs system. Standing 6′4″ and 195 lbs, Rollheiser had a .911 SV% and 3.19 GAA last season on a losing team - finishing with a 19-26 record in 46 games. As Rollheiser has progressed through the various levels of BC Junior hockey he has consistently battled for starting jobs at 4 separate levels of play. He has won the starters job at each level, and has played at a very high level as his confidence has grown. There is a decent chance that given his talent level, he could be the starting goalie for Boston U. by the end of next season.

With their last choice in the 2008 draft, the Leafs selected Andrew MacWilliam, yet another large D-man who patrolled the blue line for the Camrose Kodiaks of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, 188th overall. MacWilliam was the 59th ranked skater in the mid-season rankings by NHL central scouting, but eventually dropped to 147th by the time the final rankings were released. He has committed to play at the University of North Dakota next season. MacWilliam only had 13 assists in 54 games for Camrose, but he put up 130 PIMs. Considered a team leader, MacWilliam helped Camrose win the AJHL title, a western Canada title, and took the team to the national championships. MacWilliam describes himself as a physical defenseman that will block a lot of shots and be a force down low. He knows he needs to improve his foot speed, and will likely be a strong focus of his time when he plays in the NCAA. His junior rights were originally held by Spokane, who drafted him 163rd in the WHL draft out of Bantam, but they traded those to Medicine Hat. Looks like the Tigers are missing out on a defensive force. Sounds good to know the Leafs won’t be.

Overall, this seems to be a very solid group of Leafs prospects, so in a few years, hopefully they’ll be reaping the rewards of some good scouting work. A number of the players selected dropped in the rankings, but from a skill and size perspective they could easily be ranked much higher. Should half of them pan out into solid players, the Leafs can look forward to improvement in short order.