TORONTO (June 10) – The task of choosing the five worst draft picks by the Maple Leafs was substantially more arduous than naming the five best. The cause for this should be obvious to any long-time fan of the hockey club, or even a younger fan that wishes to look subjectively at the prime reason the Leafs have not made it to the Stanley Cup final in 43 years: Without question – and by a vast margin – player development has been the weakest link in the franchise since the universal entry draft began in 1970.
The upshot is two-fold and somewhat paradoxical: Had the club placed more emphasis on scouting in the past four decades, a number of significant players may have worn the Blue & White. The resultant improvement on the ice would therefore have limited the opportunities the Leafs had to draft in the top ten. Given that both elements were largely wasted, the club is still treading water in mid-sea and will have to climb out of its lowest placement in a quarter-century when the 2010-11 schedule begins next October.
While affixing blame for the Leafs’ inability to capitalize on enviable draft positioning, we can go one of two ways: Either the club did not have a sufficient number of people watching the junior and college ranks in North America, and the vast, increasing pool of European talent… or the people in place simply weren’t good enough. Throughout much of the 1970s and ‘80s, under the demonic ownership reign of Harold Ballard, the Leafs employed a miniscule cadre of scouts, mainly Bob Davidson, George Armstrong, Gerry McNamara, Johnny Bower and Dick Duff.
Though all but McNamara had been distinguished players in the NHL, the group was able to procure only a trio of early-draft nuggets: Darryl Sittler in 1970, and Lanny McDonald and Ian Turnbull in 1973. After being at the forefront of the European invasion – importing Borje Salming and Inge Hammarstrom from Sweden in ‘73 – the Leafs strangely ignored the overseas talent supply.
The most damning evidence is this: For an entire decade – between 1981 and 1990 – the Leafs selected in the top ten of the NHL draft. During that period, the club failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup tournament on four occasions. But, even more of a calamity is that once the decade-long string of prime draft real estate ended, the Leafs continued to miss the playoffs, as they did, consecutively, in the 1990-91 and 1991-92 seasons.
Only a sequence of prudent trades and free agent acquisitions by Cliff Fletcher – who assumed control of the hockey operation in June 1991 and obtained such players as Glenn Anderson, Doug Gilmour, Dave Andreychuk, Jamie Macoun and Sylvain Lefebvre – enabled the Leafs to briefly and spectacularly emerge from the NHL depths. But, Fletcher soon fell victim to the franchise scourge and began frittering away draft choices – uttering his infamous “draft schmaft” comment late in the 1996-97 season when asked about trading picks for veterans nearing the end of the line [Kirk Muller, Dave Gagner, Sergio Momesso, Warren Rychel, Paul DiPietro, Wayne Presley]. This modus operandi has repeatedly scuttled the Leafs for much of the past 40 years.
And, the foul-ups on the draft floor… my goodness! It’s a litany of woe sustainable for an entire book. As such, narrowing the misdeeds to a number of five is a gargantuan chore. I could write a blog on the top 20 worst draft picks in Leaf history and still retain a sizable group for honorable mention. But, after long hours of study; consultation with numerous sources, dead and alive, and the weeding out of copious blunders on behalf of the Maple Leafs, I’ve come to my conclusions.
I therefore present to you – subjective though it may be – the five most appalling draft selections by the Blue & White since the entry draft went universal in 1970.
SCOTT PEARSON: God bless this fine broth of a lad from Cornwall, Ont. – 40 years of age last December. But, why he was chosen by the Maple Leafs sixth overall in the 1988 draft is a hockey mystery that will never be solved. And that’s why Scott Pearson represents the most grievous error the club has ever made on the draft floor. The only comfort the Leafs derive – historically – is the trend toward similar miscalculation that year.
For instance, the Quebec Nordiques – selecting just before Toronto in the No. 5 slot – enthusiastically called the name of Daniel Dore from Drummondville of the Quebec junior league. If you’re wondering who Daniel Dore is, you’re not alone. His NHL “career” with the Nordiques spanned all of 17 games, during which he scored a pair of goals. The Pittsburgh Penguins, with the coveted No. 4 draft position, settled on Darrin Shannon, a left-winger with Windsor of the Ontario Hockey League. Shannon never suited up for the Penguins, though he played a key role in the club winning consecutive Stanley Cup titles in 1991 and 1992. Having been returned to junior, he was peddled to Buffalo on Nov. 12, 1988 in the trade that brought goalie Tom Barrasso to Steeltown. Barrasso was a prime figure in the two championships. Shannon stuck around for 10 years in the NHL, averaging 8.7 goals per season.
In fact, a near bus-load of never-to-be’s were chosen in the first round of the 1988 draft, including Chris Govedaris [Hartford], Corey Foster [New Jersey], Joel Savage [Buffalo], Claude Boivin [Philadelphia], Reggie Savage [Washington], Kevin Cheveldayoff [New York Islanders] and Eric Charron [Montreal]. It isn’t known how many scouts were on pain medication during the 1987-88 season, but the NHL’s bird-dogs must have been under the influence of something. As a direct result, Scott Pearson landed way too soon in the Maple Leafs’ lap.
History records that Pearson played 63 games for the Blue & White, compiling five goals and 11 assists, lending credence to my opium theory. How else can one explain the club passing on any of Jeremy Roenick, Rod Brind’Amour and Teemu Selanne, who were drafted, consecutively, beginning two slots after Pearson? The aforementioned trio has merely combined for 1,571 goals and 2,089 assists in the NHL. Also available and overlooked by all teams until the 67th pick were future stars Mark Recchi, Tony Amonte, Rob Blake and Alexander Mogilny.
As it turned out, Pearson provided some indirect value to the Maple Leafs. He was dealt to Quebec on Nov. 17, 1990 as part of a trade that brought veterans Michel Petit, Aaron Broten and Lucien DeBlois to Toronto. Petit was one of five players Fletcher sent to Calgary for Doug Gilmour.
SCOTT THORNTON: Yup, it took only one year for the Maple Leafs to almost match their blunder with Pearson. The Bay of Quite was obviously a favorite gathering spot for Leaf scouts in the 1988-89 season. The club had three of the top 21 selections in the ’89 draft at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota and spent all of them on players with the Belleville Bulls of the OHL. Never before had such uniformity evolved at the NHL draft, and it isn’t bound to happen again.
Thornton [3rd overall], Rob Pearson [12th] and Steve Bancroft [21st] combined to appear in 235 games for the Leafs, 192 of them by Pearson, who scored some key goals for the club in the 1992-93 and 1993-94 seasons. Bancroft never suited up in Toronto, while Thornton got into all of 33 games, scoring once. That easily qualifies him among the top two draft duds in franchise history.
To emphasize the point, consider who the Leafs might have otherwise selected, had Ballard chosen to spend a bit of money on scouting European players. Nicklas Lidstrom was toiling not-so anonymously in Sweden. The Leafs, and the rest of the NHL, were asleep at the wheel until the 53rd pick, when Detroit claimed the player who would become one of the top half-dozen defensemen in league history. If not Lidstrom, them how about Sergei Fedorov or Pavel Bure – Russian prodigies that later combined for 920 goals and 1,038 assists in the NHL? They were both available to the Leafs before the Belleville splurge. In fact, all of Lidstrom, Fedorov and Bure could have pulled on the Blue & White jersey, given the Leafs’ rare windfall of first round selections.
In fairness to Thornton, he was a character player that bounced around for 17 seasons in the NHL with the Leafs, Edmonton, Montreal, Dallas, San Jose and Los Angeles. And he, too, supplied the Leafs peripheral benefit, being part of the seven-player deal between Toronto and Edmonton on Sep. 19, 1991 that brought Glenn Anderson and Grant Fuhr to town. Anderson was a prime figure in the now-legendary playoff drive of 1993 that ended for the Leafs in Game 7 of the conference final against Wayne Gretzky and the Kings. So was Dave Andreychuk, acquired from Buffalo for Fuhr in February of that season. Andreychuk flourished alongside Gilmour, twice eclipsing the 50-goal mark in a Toronto uniform.
JACK VALIQUETTE: With all the draft delinquency through the years, this lanky native of Aylmer, Ont. at least provided some intrinsic value to the Maple Leafs as a dependable third-line centre on the decent clubs of the mid-to-late-‘70s. But, it still doesn’t justify a 13th overall selection in 1974. Especially when you consider that one of the greatest players of all time was still available to the Blue & White, thereby placing Valiquette in the top five among draft botch-ups in team history.
Do you think a one-two punch up the middle of Bryan Trottier and Darryl Sittler might have improved the Leafs’ fortunes in the 1970s? Or maybe a defense trio of Borje Salming, Ian Turnbull and Mark Howe... to off-set Montreal's Big Three of Larry Robinson, Serge Savard and Guy Lapointe? Perhaps Danny Gare [354 career goals] would have alleviated the scoring onus on Sittler and Lanny McDonald in those years. All of Trottier, Howe and Gare were still available when the Leafs selected Valiquette from Sault Ste. Marie of the OHA.
Yes, Valiquette had scored 63 goals and 135 points in his final year of junior but even a novice scout could see that he was a terrible skater, and would likely have difficulty keeping up in the NHL. Jack compensated with an ability to see the ice well and pass the puck accurately. But, he’ll never be mentioned in the same breath as Trottier, who went to the Islanders nine picks later, and helped fashion one of the great Stanley Cup dynasties.
Valiquette had 33 goals and 66 assists in 172 games with the Leafs. Trottier – 16 years after retirement – is still 14th on the NHL all-time scoring list with 1,425 points. Unlike Pearson and Thornton years later, drafting Valiquette turned into a double-whammy. The Leafs traded him to the Colorado Rockies in October 1978 for a future second-round draft choice. They used that pick in 1981 to select Gary Yaremchuk, 24th overall, from the Portland Winter Hawks. Yaremchuk played 34 games for the Leafs, scoring once. Among those still available at the time? Chris Chelios.
JIM BENNING: This ranking is a bit unfair, because the talented play-making defenseman of the Portland Winter Hawks was a consensus top prospect for the 1981 draft, having compiled 28 goals and 111 assists in his last year of junior. The Leafs took him sixth overall, but they should have learned their lesson with Valiquette.
Like the big centre-man they had drafted seven years earlier, Benning was an awkward skater, unfit for stardom in the NHL. While lugging the puck into the offensive zone, he gave the appearance of a man suffering from abdominal cramps. Crouched at almost a 90-degree angle; his feet moving further apart with every stride, Benning always seemed on the verge of a groin tear. Had this not been the case, he probably would have teetered neck-and-neck with Dale Hawerchuk for top selection in the ’81 pool. As it were, he merely joined the list of eye-popping errors at the Toronto draft table.
Given his puck-handling skill, Benning enjoyed a decent run of nine seasons in Toronto and Vancouver. In 605 NHL games, he had 52 goals and 191 assists [37 and 136 with the Leafs]. But, much more was expected from him. Hindsight being what it is, the Leafs would have solidified their goaltending in the 1980s – and, perhaps, altered the destiny of the Edmonton Oilers – had they chosen more prudently in the ’81 draft. Grant Fuhr was still available… scooped up by Glen Sather two picks after Benning. Fuhr, of course, backstopped the Oilers to five Stanley Cups before his 1991 trade to the Maple Leafs.
A far better option on defense would have been Al MacInnis of the Kitchener Rangers – chosen by Calgary in the No. 15 slot. After a magnificent career of 23 seasons with the Flames and St. Louis, MacInnis stands third, all-time, in points among NHL defensemen [934], behind only Raymond Bourque and Paul Coffey. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy in helping lead Calgary to the 1989 Stanley Cup and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007.
On Dec. 2, 1986, the Leafs traded Benning to Vancouver for fellow blue-liner Rick Lanz, who scored an overtime winner in a 1987 playoff game against St. Louis. A wonderful man with a keen hockey eye, Benning is currently Peter Chiarelli’s chief lieutenant with the Boston Bruins.
DRAKE BEREHOWSKY: This was the last of ten consecutive years in which the Leafs had a top-ten pick at the draft, and they blew it once again. A genial young man, Drake Berehowsky actually had two stints with the Leafs but it’s the first one that should have been avoided. GM Floyd Smith took Berehowsky 10th overall in the 1990 draft at Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum. Exactly why Smith made such a decision is a mystery to this day, given that a serious knee injury limited Berehowsky to only nine games with Kingston of the OHL in his final junior season. The Toronto native, though highly regarded, was not considered a Bobby Orr re-make, and the Leafs had a number of better options.
For instance, ponder, if you will, the club's direction had either the 19th or 20th selections been Toronto bound… fellows named Keith Tkachuk and Martin Brodeur. A gifted, hard-nosed forward, Tkachuk is one of only four American-born players to score 500 goals in the NHL. And, Brodeur is arguably the greatest goalie that has yet lived – the owner of every meaningful record among puck-stoppers in league history.
Also available when the Leafs drafted Berehowsky: Doug Weight [1,024 career points], who stands alongside Tkachuk [1,065 points] in the realm of great U.S.-born players; Sergei Zubov [771 points, career plus-148], a key defenseman on Stanley Cup teams with the New York Rangers in 1994 and Dallas in ’99. And Peter Bondra, who had seasons of 52, 52, 46 and 45 goals with the Washington Capitals, finishing his NHL career with 503 tallies.
After playing parts of four seasons with the Leafs – compiling six goals and 24 assists – Berehowsky was traded to Pittsburgh in April 1995 for an obscure blue-liner named Grant Jennings. He briefly re-joined the Leafs from the Penguins in February 2004 for defenseman Ric Jackman, appearing in nine games at the end of his NHL career.
HONORABLE MENTION:
LUCA CEREDA [24th overall in 1999]: Sadly, this young man suffered a heart ailment that prevented him from playing in the NHL. But, many still wonder why the Maple Leafs targeted Ambri-Piotta of Switzerland – not exactly an international hockey power – for their first pick in the ’99 draft. Better choices might have been Ryan Miller or Henrik Zetterberg. Ouch!
BRANDON CONVERY [8th overall in 1992]: Cliff Fletcher is lucky he traded for Gilmour, Andreychuk and others, for he certainly didn’t distinguish himself at the draft table. On reflection, the 1992 draft wasn’t the deepest in history; the event, at the Montreal Forum, overshadowed by Philadelphia and the New York Rangers both claiming to have acquired Eric Lindros in a trade with Quebec [an arbitrator ultimately awarded Lindros to the Flyers]. But, Convery was another complete bust for the Leafs, appearing in only 50 games and scoring seven goals before being traded to Vancouver for Lonny Bohonos in March 1998. Either Sergei Gonchar or Michael Peca would have looked better in blue and white. Both were still available when Fletcher took Convery.
JEFF WARE [15th overall in 1995]: For several years after this mishap, Leaf fans could be heard warbling, “Ware for art thou Jeff?” There was no answer. A defenseman from Oshawa of the OHL, Ware’s career with the Blue & White spanned 15 whole games and yielded six minutes in penalties. The hockey club should have been ejected from Northlands Coliseum for making this pick. The only saving grace is that no future hall of famer lurked in the immediate vicinity of the first round. But, the Leafs would have been much happier with Marc Savard [New York Rangers, 91st overall] or Miikka Kiprusoff [San Jose, 116th overall].
JOHN DOHERTY [57th overall in 2003]: The Leafs waited around for their first pick until deep into the second round, but they certainly out-did themselves with this obscure prospect from Phillips Academy in Andover MA who isn’t even listed among nine people with the same name on Wikipedia [now that’s a slap in the kisser]. The native of Lynnfield MA attended the University of New Hampshire and was never heard from again. Several prospects, still available at 57th overall, might have fared better with the Maple Leafs, including a hefty right-winger named Dustin Byfuglien.
TREVOR JOHANSEN [12th overall in 1977]: Though this rugged defenseman from the Toronto Marlies of the OHL performed rather well as a rookie with the Leafs, some guy named Mike Bossy went to the New York Islanders three picks later. Oy vay.
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