With the 15th overall pick the Leafs are proud to select… Jack Quinn?

The Ontario Hockey League had two 50 goal scorers in the 2019-20 season. The Leafs have one already in Nick Robertson, but they may have a shot at the complete set by drafting Jack Quinn 15th overall in October.

I don’t know if I’d say Jack Quinn 100% fits the bill as an undersized winger that the Leafs have been known to adore, but most sites record his height at 5’11, and most reports on Quinn seem to give him the one dimensional label, though being an elite goal scorer isn’t a bad single dimension to have.

 

Quinn seemed to do a bit of sliding in the draft rankings over the course of the year, which isn’t completely unexpected as more North Americans based scouts became wise to who was excelling in Europe, and other players simply moved past Quinn while he was still doing everything right. The fact that he played more as a winger when he was considered to have some potential to develop as a center didn’t help, nor did the fact that there is a perception that he might have been facing easier competition because the top defensive units would have been lining up against Marco Rossi’s line instead of his.

Quinn is also one of the older players in the draft. In fact he’s just eight days younger than Nick Robertson. The fact that we’re already talking about Robertson being ready for the NHL might inspire some optimism that Quinn could make a quick jump, but it might also point to Quinn benefiting from being a bigger and experienced player in the league prior to his draft year. There seems to be plenty of support for Quinn as a potential top ten player in this draft, and in reality that might be where he goes. The rankings from Elite Prospects and Future Considerations leave the window open that Quinn might be available to the Leafs, although it’s hard to imagine the Oilers not jumping all over a goal scoring winger when they were playing Josh Archibald with Connor McDavid last season. Quinn might simply not be an option for Toronto.

Of course the Leafs do have more pressing needs than Quinn anyway. The wing depth is still pretty damn elite even if Toronto moves on from another winger besides Kapanen this offseason. The pipeline is still strong after Robertson with Abramov, Abruzzesse, Korshkov, and Hallinder all ready to step up in the coming years. The appeal of Quinn comes largely down to believing that he is best player available, and in a goal scoring contest, the argument for Quinn is a strong one.

Given the some of the high rankings of Quinn and his goal scoring ways, if the Leafs truly wanted to select him they may have to trade up in the draft to grab him. If they were to do that I’d say the Leafs were making a mistake. Quinn falling to the Leafs is worth exploring, but the notion of the Leafs moving up to grab a winger, even one who is an accomplished goal scorer doesn’t seem like the best course of action. Stranger things have happened and that’s why Timothy Liljegren is a Leaf, so Quinn will remain a player worth keeping an eye on.