Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes, and Jesper Wallstedt. Not a bad list of players for Judd Brackett to have attached to him over his time in Vancouver and Minnesota as the Director of Amateur Scouting for those organizations. Brackett has some successes. He also has Olli Juolevi as a top-five pick bust, and Carson Lambos, Danila Yurov, and Liam Ohgren as first-round picks that haven’t panned out as of yet.

There are a lot of people excited about Judd Brackett joining the Maple Leafs organization and running the draft alongside Mark Leach, but what do we know about the history of Brackett’s draft record? Should we be excited? Canucks fans loved him. I’m not sure how much Wild fans would agree, but before looking at how Brackett’s teams drafted while he was the Director of Amateur Scouting, it’s important to consider some variables.

1. The Director of Amateur Scouting doesn’t control what comes after the players are selected. The development after the selection and how the player adjusts to the pros isn’t entirely on the scouting department. They should be identifying who can develop in the system and who can adjust to pro hockey, but that is too much to put entirely on scouting.
2. The selections made by the Canucks and Wild are driven by organizational need. They are also going to be driven by who the best players were in those drafts.
3. The last three seasons of drafting with the Wild are probably too soon to tell whether they are successes or not. The success of Zeev Buium is encouraging.
4. So much of what Brackett did will also depend on the strength of scouts in each of the regions, as well as who he trusts.
5. The Director of Amateur Scouting might “run the draft table,” but the GM is still the final word, and as we see with the Leafs situation, is it Brackett as the Assistant GM of Player Evaluations or Mark Leach as the Director of Amateur Scouting that truly calls the shots, even before it gets to John Chayka? A grain of salt needs to be had with any opinions on Brackett’s draft record.

Now that the disclaimers are done, it’s worth pointing out that picks outside the top-20 in the draft have been misses for Brackett and company. Hughes, Pettersson, Wallstedt, Vasily Podkolzin, and Buium have worked out well, while Juolevi is the only big miss in that range, but only Nils Hoglander (2nd round pick) and Arturs Silovs (5th round pick) look like success stories after the first round. Jonah Gadjovich and Michael DiPietro were decent enough picks, but late round success stories have not been there the way they’ve been for Mark Leach or the long-term Leafs scouts.

Brackett was part of the Canucks organization all the way back to the 2008-2009 season, and many of their draft successes over the period leading up to the 2016 draft might also be associated with his eye for talent. The fact that Brackett was promoted to Director speaks to his success over that time. Brackett’s time as Director also likely informed the 2020 draft for the Canucks, but as he was fired prior to the selections, Brackett is removed from a draft that didn’t see the Canucks pick until the third round and resulted in not a single player selected seeing an NHL game to date.

The Canucks drafting tendencies over the four drafts he ran resulted in goaltenders being selected in three out of four years. The Canucks had two forwards and two defencemen taken in the first round, and a preference towards forwards and goaltenders in the latest rounds, with more of a balance of forwards and defencemen throughout the first five rounds.

The Canucks drafted out of the OHL more than any other league (eight picks), followed by the WHL (five picks), and the USHL (four picks). Sweden and Russia were the next most common, with 3 picks each, including Podkolzin, Pettersson, Silovs, and Hoglander as the success stories. Quinn Hughes was the only NCAA player selected during his time as the Canucks Director of Amateur Scouting.

It’s too soon to tell on a lot of the picks from the Brackett’s time in Minnesota, but you can see how his draft tendencies shifted.

Only two goaltenders have been selected in the past five drafts. Wallstedt as a first rounder meant a lot of eggs went in his basket, and the Wild understandably backed off from the position.

With the Wild, Brackett had a tendency to take defencemen in the later rounds of the draft, in contrast to the forwards taken in Vancouver. The first four rounds remain fairly balanced in positions.

The Wild also leaned heavily on the WHL (11 selections), followed by the OHL and USHL with 4 selections apiece. Whether this is driven by the scouts, the team, or Brackett remains to be seen, but it is a strong preference.

The success with the Wild, like the Canucks, has largely been limited to first round selections, and while it is too soon to say how successful the 2023, 2024, and 2025 late round selections will be, there are only 13 games played in the NHL between all the 2nd round or later picks from 2021 and 2022.

Judd Brackett is another strong amateur scouting voice entering the organization at a time when stocking the cupboards is a priority. During his time with the Wild, a lot of his focus has been on finding centres, and that will likely continue in Toronto.

The Leafs have been looking to the WHL more frequently in the past few seasons, and it doesn’t look like Brackett will be someone who breaks that cycle.

It seems like Brackett’s experience with running the draft is part of the reason for bringing him in, as Leach has only held the Director position in Toronto, and perhaps the club wants some additional oversight for him while generally trusting his opinions on players.

What’s perhaps most interesting about Brackett is that he’s avoided the NCAA outside the first round and top European leagues outside of the top two rounds. The majority of his depth has come from North America.

Brackett has glowing references from around the league, speaking to what a smart hire this was for the Maple Leafs. The draft history leaves something to be desired in later rounds, but his history of getting it right on the most important pick is a good reason to bring him on board.