Leafs at The Draft: Player Size

Photo Credit: John E. Sokolowski/USA TODAY Sports

There’s been a fair amount of debate over how good the Leafs have performed at the draft under Dave Morrison, who’s held a position in the scouting department since the 2004 lockout, obviously most recently as the director of amateur scouting. Yesterday we took a look at some of his favourite fishing holes, and today we’ll see how the team has picked since then in regards to player size. 

Using the always-convenient Draft Tool compiled by TLN’s own Justin Fisher, we can easily dig in and see what trends, if any, exist when it comes to the Leafs’ draft record and the value they place on stature.

For the purpose of this piece we’re only going to take a look at the Leafs’ draft record since the 2004 lockout. So, 2005 up to and including 2014. That also more or less falls in line with the entirety of Morrison’s tenure with the team. It should be noted he moved into his more prominent role starting with the 2006 draft, however.

Since the 2004 lockout, the Leafs have used a total of 67 draft picks, which of course is some sort of sick joke. But anyway, out of those 67, they’ve gone with what I would consider giant players ten times. I decided my definition of “giant” would be any prospect who was 6’4″ or above when drafted. If there’s such thing as undersized prospects, these guys would almost be oversized, if you will.

Here’s the list:

Definitely not much to write home about here. Jimmy Hayes is an NHL regular but no one else has turned out, or at least not yet in the case of more recent selections. Most of these picks occurred in the later rounds, with Gauthier being the exception as a first rounder in 2013. 

At a glance, it really doesn’t appear the Leafs are size-crazy or anything, and especially not with their early selections. 

If we look a little deeper, the Leafs have used 15% of their picks on players 6’4″ or taller, but how does that stack up with other teams? Well, for comparison’s sake, I took a quick look at the last five franchises to win the Stanley Cup to see how they drafted in that same size range.

As you can see, the Leafs have drafted a slightly higher-percentage of vertically-advanced prospects than the other teams on this list, but I’m not sure if it’s enough be considered notable.

In this category, where does this leave Toronto among the teams we mentioned earlier?

Based on the overall picture, it looks like the Leafs fall right in line with the Cup winners in this regard. Again, nothing really to suggest they lean heavily one way or the other.

This is the most common size category from where the Leafs make their picks, and obviously they’re not the only ones.

At 46% the Leafs are the second-lowest on this list but it doesn’t appear to be anything to draw conclusions from. 

Much like the giants on the other end of the spectrum, the Leafs were limited in their selections here (and mainly pushed them to the later rounds), which seems typical. Let’s see how the other teams selected in this category.

Of course the sample isn’t huge, but among these teams the Leafs are about middle of the pack. 

It’s funny to note though, the Bruins – a team with a reputation for wanting to be tough and big and scary – drafted the highest percentage of undersized kids in this group. Detroit, on the other hand – perhaps known best for their ability to churn out skill regardless of size – have only taken four of these smaller prospects in the last decade.

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