In the 4-3 shootout victory over New Jersey last night, the Maple Leafs finally found a bit of offense, with regulation goals from Tyler Bozak, Nazem Kadri and David Steckel and scoring on all three attempts in the shootout on Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur, as well as a 43 save performance from James Reimer, who won his third game in the last five starts.
While Toronto is still mathematically within range of eighth place Washington(eight points behind with seven games to go), their recent uptick in play is only guaranteeing their residence in the hockey version of purgatory……not enough points to make the playoffs and just enough to finish outside of a top five lottery pick in the June rookie draft.
For those who believe there is no significant difference between having a top five pick and a selection outside the lottery, take a look at how the great the percentage of impact/quality players are in the top five of the drafts from 2006 – 2010 and how the picks 6 through 10 are pretty much hit or miss propositions.
2006 Draft
1 St. Louis Erik Johnson
2 Pittsburgh Jordan Staal
3 Chicago Jonathan Toews
4 Washington Nicklas Backstrom
5 Boston Phil Kessel
---------
6 Columbus Derick Brassard
7 NY Islanders Kyle Okposo
8 Phoenix Peter Mueller
9 Minnesota James Sheppard
10 Florida Michael Frolik
2007 Draft
1 Chicago Patrick Kane
2 Philadelphia James Van Riemsdyk
3 Phoenix Kyle Turris
4 Los Angeles Thomas Hickey
5 Washington Karl Alzner
--------
6 Edmonton Sam Gagner
7 Columbus Jakub Voracek
8 Boston Zach Hamill
9 San Jose Logan Couture
10 Florida Keaton Ellerby
2008 Draft
1 Tampa Bay Steven Stamkos
2 Los Angeles Drew Doughty
3 Atlanta Zach Bogosian
4 St. Louis Alex Pietrangelo
5 Toronto Luke Schenn
--------
6 Columbus Nikita Filatov
7 Nashville Colin Wilson
8 Phoenix Mikkel Boedker
9 NY Islanders Joshua Bailey
10 Vancouver Cody Hodgson
2009 Draft
1 NY Islanders John Tavares
2 Tampa Bay Victor Hedman
3 Colorado Matt Duchene
4 Atlanta Evander Kane
5 Los Angeles Brayden Schenn
--------
6 Phoenix Oliver Ekman-Larsson
7 Toronto Nazem Kadri
8 Dallas Scott Glennie
9 Ottawa Jared Cowen
10 Edmonton Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson
2010 Draft
1 Edmonton Taylor Hall
2 Boston Tyler Seguin
3 Florida Erik Gudbranson
4 Columbus Ryan Johansen
5 NY Islanders Nino Niederreiter
--------
6 Tampa Bay Brett Connolly
7 Carolina Jeff Skinner
8 Atlanta Alexander Burmistrov
9 Minnesota Mikael Granlund
10 NY Rangers Dylan McIlrath
The Leafs face the New York Rangers tonight at the ACC, who are battling Pittsburgh for not only the leading of the Atlantic Division, but for the lead and first seed in the Eastern Conference. Mike Brown, Clarke MacArthur and Matt Frattin are not ready to return to the lineup, so both Kadri and Ryan Hamilton will be in the lineup tonight. After a heavy workload, Reimer has been given the night off and Jonas Gustavsson gets the start.
If you are interested in sponsorship or advertising your business in the Greater Toronto / Southern Ontario area on this column, please send a message for more information by clicking on the “Contact” button at the top of the page.
For Those on Twitter:
KINDLE USERS: Please sign up for Maple Leafs Buzz, which includes a free-of-charge 14-day trial and is just 99 cents per month afterwards. For more information
click here.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»