Mark Hunter Has a Sad and Leaves Toronto

So, nothing like starting off the work week with some big news…

No matter how terrible Mark Hunter has proven to be at the draft table, it’s important the Leafs don’t let him take that information to another organization to use against them. I’m sure it’s also in the organization’s best interest to not retain someone who doesn’t want to be here anymore. There’s some speculation that Lou Lamoriello is going to bring Hunter with him to the Islanders, and in that case, I feel incredibly bad for the Islanders.

Hunter has been the “draft guru” for the Leafs, and aside from the 2015 draft, he has proven only capable of completely tanking anything that isn’t a first round pick. His strange love of overaged Russian players, and 6’5 pylon defensemen makes it seem like he’s a mix of being completely out of touch with where the game is at today, and at the same time trying to look like the smartest guy in the room by going off the board with his picks. A little off the board is fun, but save that for rounds 5-7, we don’t need to take Yegor Korshkov 31st overall.

Hunter’s drafting has produced some absolute head scratchers with Fedor Gordeev, Keaton Middleton, Nicolas Mattinen, Ryan O’Connell, Vladimir Bobylev, Ryan McGregor, Vladislav Kara, and Nikolai Chebykin. It’s hard to imagine producing worse second days of the draft that what the Leafs have done over the past couple of years, and it will be refreshing to see what Kyle “Young Sheldon” Dubas does different.

This seems like a middle aged manchild kicking up dust because he didn’t get his way, and can’t accept that someone young than him could be better at a job than him. Frankly, who needs to keep this kind of entitled jackass around? I’m sure we’ll see him land somewhere in the NHL, but it’s also entirely possible that he takes his remaining year of Toronto money and goes back to buying the best London Knights team they can, since blank cheques always go further than eyes for scouting talent anyway.

The most exciting aspect of this is that Kyle Dubas now potentially has two vacancies in his front office, one for head of scouting and another running the Marlies. It will be interesting to see how conventionally he fills these roles, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see at least one go to a “hockey man”.