Maple Leafs Select Vladimir Bobylev 122nd Overall

With the 122nd overall pick, and the first of the fifth round, the Leafs selected Victoria Royals forward Vladimir Bobylev.

Here’s HockeyProspect.com on Bobylev:

Bobylev was also identified by NHL Numbers’ Jeremy Crowe as a player who, statistically speaking, could end up being a late-round steal:

Here are Bobylev’s boxcar stats:

So where are the Bobylev highlights? You already saw them. The only thing I could find on the guy were videos of fights. This concerns me.

From the sounds of it, Bobylev sounds like he’ll be a bottom-six forward if he ends up making the NHL. That’s something I’m not a big fan of, and I would’ve preferred players with higher upside at this pick, such as Jesper Bratt or Zachary Sawchenko.

That said, Bobylev has good numbers, so that if nothing else has to be considered good.

It’s been an interesting draft for the Leafs so far, with them now having taken at least three player that are either big, previously undrafted, or non-North American. Bobylev fits all three of those distinctions.