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What if the Leafs lottery luck ended up like the Avs….

April 29, 2017, 10:13 PM ET [161 Comments]
Mike Augello
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On Saturday, with 15 team representatives watching anxiously as Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly revealed the draft slots for the 2017 NHL Draft on June 23rd in Chicago, it was the New Jersey Devils (with an 8.5% chance) that won the right to pick first overall, with the long shot Philadelphia Flyers (2.2%) and Dallas Stars (5.8%) finishing second and third.

There have been very few times in the past that the Toronto Maple Leafs could consider themselves lucky, but that was the case a year from Sunday at the CBC building in Toronto, when Brendan Shanahan smiled broadly after learning his club had won the right to select Auston Matthews first overall.



The last place Colorado Avalanche, who had an 18% chance to select first (2% lower than last year since the lottery included the expansion Vegas Golden Knights) ended up with the fourth overall pick.

One can only imagine what the reaction would have been in Toronto if that lottery had turned out for them as it did for the Avalanche.




The next 12 months, which included a successful regular season, a surprising post-season berth and going toe-to-toe with the Washington Capitals in the first round was quite surreal and wouldn’t have happened had the Leafs drafted Matthews, the likely Calder Trophy winner.

If Toronto had lost the lottery and selected fourth, they would have most likely selected winger Jesse Puljujarvi. The 18-year-old Finn made the Edmonton Oilers out of training camp, but scored just one goal in 28 NHL games before being sent to the American Hockey League.

With Edmonton in the playoffs, their management clearly believed that the young winger was not ready for prime time and loaned him to Finland for the upcoming World Championships.

With the Leafs practicing a more patient approach in player development, Puljujarvi would have most likely have started with the Toronto Marlies (as William Nylander and Kasperi Kapanen did last season) or possibly remain in Finland another year.

The absence of Matthews would have meant another year of missing the playoffs and more focus and pressure on Nylander and Mitch Marner, as well as Mike Babcock not having the freedom to use Nazem Kadri as the club’s shutdown center.

*******

The Toronto Marlies advanced to the second round of the Calder Cup Playoffs with a 2-1 triple overtime victory the Albany Devils at Ricoh Coliseum on Friday, but without winger Kasperi Kapanen for most of the contest.

The 20-year-old winger, who scored a pair of goals for the Leafs in their first round loss to Washington and two assists in the Marlies overtime victory in Game 3, was elbowed by Devils defenseman Seth Helgeson in the first period and did not play the remainder of the game.

Head coach Sheldon Keefe could provide no update after the game, but Kapanen will have most of the week to recover, as the Marlies do not open their best-of-seven series against Syracuse until Friday.



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