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Leafs to pick 25th, Lou heading to Long Island?, Marlies looking to sweep

May 8, 2018, 12:56 PM ET [454 Comments]
Mike Augello
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The elimination of the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday night and of the San Jose Sharks over the weekend had an effect on where the Toronto Maple Leafs will select in the upcoming 2018 NHL Draft in Dallas.

Toronto finished with 105 points in the regular season, which was more than the Penguins and Sharks, but if either had advanced to the Conference Final, their pick would have moved down to 28th, 29th, 30th or 31st and the Leafs pick (along with other clubs) would have moved up.

Since that did not occur, Toronto will be selecting 25th overall, which is the lowest first selection that the club has had since 2010, when they traded their first round pick in the Phil Kessel deal and selected Brad Ross 43rd overall.

All drafts are different. The last time the Leafs picked 25th was in 2011, when they selected defenseman Stuart Percy (who played just 12 NHL games before leaving the organization in 2016), but Winnipeg chose Jack Roslovic in 2015 and Boston snagged one of the NHL’s best young forwards in David Pastrnak 25th overall in 2014.

The philosophy of the Leafs in the Brendan Shanahan era has been to keep top draft picks and that has yielded great results with the high picks of Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews and defenseman Timothy Liljegren 17th overall, but the club has been more adventurous with lower first rounders.

In 2015, the Leafs had the 24th overall pick from the Cody Franson-Mike Santorelli deal with Nashville and traded down twice to get three picks in the second and third rounds that ended up being Travis Dermott, Jeremy Bracco and Martins Dzierkals.

In 2016, Lou Lamoriello used Pittsburgh’s first from the Phil Kessel deal and an additional pick to acquire Frederik Andersen from Anaheim.

You cannot question Assistant GM Mark Hunter's ability to find good players in the Draft, but with the club at a stage where their pipeline is fairly well stocked and with Toronto selecting in the bottom third of the first round, that could mean that the Leafs will be open to dealing.

If rumors of potential trades near the deadline are any indication, the Leafs were open to moving their first as part of a larger package in offers for a top defenseman like Ryan McDonagh or Erik Karlsson. With clubs like Calgary not having a first round pick and possibly shopping Dougie Hamilton or TJ Brodie, and top pairing options like Karlsson and Jacob Trouba potentially being on the market over the summer, trading their top pick may be a price the Leafs are willing to pay if an opportunity to address one of their areas of need arises.

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The rumors of Lou Lamoriello not being out of work long continue to gain momentum in league circles.

NHL Network’s EJ Hradek indicated on Monday that rumors of the Leafs senior advisor heading to the NY Islanders to join son Chris are “starting to percolate”. There are no indications if the 75-year-old Hall-of-Famer will be hired as the Isles team president to work with Garth Snow, if he will be brought in to replace the unpopular GM or if he will remain in his position with Toronto, but the persistent speculation is a strong indicator that Lamoriello is still interested in having a tangible role with an NHL club.

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The Toronto Marlies will look to close out their second round series against the Syracuse Crunch, as they lead 3-0 in the best-of-seven series and play Game 4 at Onondaga War Memorial Arena on Tuesday.

The Marlies were able to overcome their obstacles against Syracuse on the road with a 7-1 victory in Game 3 on Sunday, thanks to an eight-point performance from the top line of Miro Aaltonen, Carl Grundstrom and Andreas Johnsson and a 19-save performance from goalie Calvin Pickard.

It is expected that starter Garret Sparks will return in goal for Toronto after sitting in the second of back-to-back games and Syracuse may return to veteran Eddie Pasquale between the pipes after rookie Connor Ingram allowed seven goals on 30 shots on Sunday.

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