Maple Leafs Draft Picks All Confirmed With New Director of Scouting Set to Take the Stage

With the Florida Panthers having won the Stanley Cup last night, the NHL season has finally ended, and with that, all eyes will now be fixated towards the off-season. The first step will be the NHL Draft with the draft order having now been confirmed.

The Toronto Maple Leafs will enter the summer festivities with 6 picks. However, none of those will occur in the first round with that selection now belonging to the Chicago Blackhawks from their trade for Jake McCabe a couple seasons ago.

Toronto has one pick in the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th rounds, as well as two in 5th. With the draft order now being confirmed, they will officially have picks 64, 86, 137, 153, 185, and 217.

It is an exciting time for the Leafs and new Director of Amateur Scouting, Mark Leach, who was hired at the position last year in the middle of July. He had spent the previous 11 years in Dallas as part of their scouting staff, and before that, he had spent 17 years with the Detroit Red Wings in the same position.

Safe to say the Leafs are in good hands, considering the draft hauls that the Red Wings enjoyed from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, as well as the Stars, who have built their Stanley Cup contending team primarily through the draft.

While the Leafs don't have a first round pick for the next 3 seasons, Leach had some good luck in the middle-to-late rounds, including the infamous Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg late round steals, as well as some recent second round selections in Roope Hintz and Logan Stankoven.

It will be interesting to see what the Maple Leafs can find in the draft since there's expected to be a few diamonds in the rough in the second round and beyond, as well as overage prospects who could entice Leach and company.