Previously, we looked at some great picks by the Maple Leafs in the past. Now, it’s time to look at some of the worst draft picks since 2005. The players in this list did not turn out to be what they were expected to be when they were drafted. Some players were drafted while other players went on to have much better careers and were selected after. Here are four players that the Maple Leafs probably regret drafting, in no specific order.
Maple Leafs Worst Draft Picks Since 2005
Jiri Tlusty (13th pick, 2006)
Jiri Tlusty has the most games played in the NHL out of all the players in this list. Also, he’s the highest-selected draft pick on this list at 13th overall in 2006. Tlusty went on to play 446 NHL games, which doesn’t seem that bad for a ‘terrible pick.’ However, throughout three seasons, he only played 74 games with the Maple Leafs and contributed 20 points. For a depth forward or a low draft pick it’s tolerable. But for a player selected as high as he was, it’s nothing short of unacceptable.
The Czech forward then moved on to the Carolina Hurricanes, where he improved to a roster player. In 322 games, he scored 145 points and was playing middle-six minutes. After his time in Carolina, he had brief stints with the Winnipeg Jets and the New Jersey Devils.
Not only was this a bad pick given his offensive contribution, but Tlusty was drafted over players who turned out to be elite. In fact, just nine picks later, Claude Giroux was selected by the Philadelphia Flyers. He went on to play over 1,000 games and score over 1,000 points. He’s also still active, playing for the Ottawa Senators going into his 18th season. That’s a scenario that will get Leafs fans wondering what could have been.
Tyler Biggs (22nd pick, 2011)
The next of the Maple Leafs draft picks takes us to 2011. Some players have played several games in the NHL, like Tlusty. Others played just a handful, and then there’s Tyler Biggs, who never saw NHL ice time in his hockey career. After being drafted by the Maple Leafs, he played a season with Miami University. The following season he played for the Oshawa Generals of the OHL. His tenure in Oshawa was average for a player who is expected to play in the NHL. Biggs scored 26 goals and 55 points in 67 games for the Generals.
After that, management believed that he should play in the minors with the Toronto Marlies. He ended up playing 108 games for the Marlies over three seasons, yet he only scored 10 points. That seemed to be the last straw and Toronto moved on from the Ohio native. After that, he spent most of his time in the ECHL, and even then his numbers were rather disappointing.
This draft pick will go down as one of the worst in franchise history.
Stuart Percy (25th pick, 2011)
Two picks after Biggs, the general manager at the time, Brian Burke decided to draft Stuart Percy with the 25th pick. Percy’s NHL career isn’t much more impressive than Biggs’, but he was at least able to earn some games for the Maple Leafs. In two separate campaigns, he played a few games for Toronto. In the 2014-15 season, he featured in nine games, in the process he provided three helpers. The very next season he only played three games for the Buds and that turned out to be the end of his NHL career. For most of his career, he spent his time in the AHL. Percy played well over 300 games in the American league, representing five different teams along the way.
Toronto didn’t miss out on anything groundbreaking in the 2011 draft. Nikita Kucherov was selected in the second round by the Tampa Bay Lightning, but many teams missed out on him. However, the Anaheim Ducks had a solid draft, selecting Rickard Rakell, John Gibson and William Karlsson not too long after Toronto picked Biggs and Percy. Funny enough, that was at the hands of Burke‘s successor in Anaheim, Bob Murray. Burke was fired the next season and these two draft picks may have played a part in that.
Frederik Gauthier (21st, 2013)
The 21st pick in the 2013 draft, Toronto selected Frederik Gauthier. The Laval native stands six-foot-five and is 239 lb. There’s no denying that Gauthier is a unit on the ice, and for a little while he was for the Maple Leafs. For the entirety of his NHL career, he was a fourth liner or just an extra forward sitting in the press box.
Despite being a scratched forward most of the time, he spent five seasons with the Leafs. During that time, he played 168 games, scoring 13 goals and 18 assists. His best season was in 2018-19 where he played 70 games and put up 14 points. It’s tough to ask more of the forward when he averaged less than nine minutes of ice time per game that season. For someone who didn’t see much ice time in the NHL, he didn’t play that much for the Marlies either.
Compared to five seasons with the Leafs, he was in the minors for only three seasons. Later on in his career, he would play for the Arizona Coyotes and the New Jersey Devils, only playing a total of 10 games and not earning a point. He would also feature for both their farm teams. With the Utica Comets in 2021-22, he beat his NHL totals in just 51 games, scoring 32 points (31 points in his NHL career).
Only six players in the first round of his draft finished with fewer points than Gauthier. There are a few names after Gauthier that, then-general manager, Dave Nonis wishes he would’ve gone with. For instance, Shea Theodore went five picks after Toronto’s pick, and once again it was the Ducks. Theodore is a player that the Leafs were rumoured to be interested in earlier this offseason.
Main Photo: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports
