After a disastrous 2025-26 season that resulted in the firings of both general manager Brad Treliving and head coach Craig Berube, the Toronto Maple Leafs received a generational bounce on the night of the draft lottery, winning the first overall pick in the upcoming draft.

While the majority of the focus will be on the first pick, the Maple Leafs have some other picks they’re going to want to nail, too. We already took you back and revisited the 60th overall pick from recent drafts (the Maple Leafs have that pick this year), so let’s run it back and see who makes up the best and the worst of the players selected 69th overall in recent history.

Joe Basaraba was a whiff, there’s no beating around the bush for this one. He played college hockey and then stuck mostly in the ECHL, save for a 22-game AHL stint in 2014-15. That said, he got to play hockey for a living in Scotland, Romania, Italy, and Slovakia, too, so was his career really a bust? I’d be thrilled with that life.

Oops! Nobody went 69th overall in 2011. The Devils had this pick along with their 2014 first-round pick forfeited due to cap circumvention when signing Ilya Kovalchuk. Hope the Leafs can pick somebody better than, uh, nobody at 69th this year!

Back to non-forfeited picks, Daniel Altshuller was the pick for the Hurricanes at 69th overall in 2012. He dipped his feet into the pros, playing in 43 AHL games and 38 ECHL games over three seasons, but retired following the 2018-19 season after appearing in two ECHL games for the Brampton Beast.

We’ve finally reached our first 69th overall pick since 2010 with games played in the NHL! Nick Baptiste may have only gotten a cup of coffee in the NHL, but that’s more than most can say. He appeared in 47 NHL games between two seasons with the Buffalo Sabres in 2016-17 and 2017-18, including a stop with the Toronto Marlies between 2018 and 2020. He’s currently playing for Dusseldorfer EG in Germany’s second-tier pro league.

Another whiff. Glover spent four years with the University of Minnesota before joining the ECHL’s Jacksonville Icemen for two years. He spent parts of his final season, 2019-20, in the ECHL, in Czechia, and in Finland before hanging up the skates.

Finally, an NHL player who’s still in the league! It isn’t the Blue Jackets reaping the rewards of the Kolesar pick, but he’s currently playing in the Stanley Cup Final to complete his sixth season with the Vegas Golden Knights and finished seventh in the league in hits in 2025-26. Give any team a player like that in the third round and they’ll be happy.

Once a top talent for junior hockey’s biggest powerhouse, the London Knights, Cliff Pu’s career has taken a serious fall on and off the ice since then. He couldn’t stick in the AHL and signed with Kunlun Red Star of the KHL in 2021-22. He most recently played in England for the EIHL’s Sheffield Steelers before his contract was abruptly terminated in December 2025 due to a domestic violence charge.

Mackenzie Entwistle can say he was a regular NHL player for three years, which, again, is more than most people can say, but he is the victim of a rare early peak. He spent his age 22-24 seasons with the Blackhawks before signing with the Florida Panthers, who have yet to use him in the NHL. At age 26, there’s still time for him to make a comeback, but with just 11 points in 49 AHL games last season, it’ll be an uphill battle.

Jake Wise enjoyed a nice college career with Boston University and Ohio State University before joining the AHL in 2023-24. He isn’t with the Blackhawks organization anymore, now playing for the Colorado Eagles, AHL affiliate of the Colorado Avalanche. Not much else to say about this one.

Ludvig never played a game for the Panthers, but he did get his feet wet in the NHL between 2023 and 2025. He first appeared in 33 games with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2023-24 before getting a short stint with the Colorado Avalanche in 2024-25. He’s currently playing overseas in his second season with HC Dynamo Pardubice of Czechia’s pro league.

Here’s an interesting one. Nikishin was selected in 2020 and immediately became one of the KHL’s top talents, playing for Russia’s Olympic team in 2022 and regularly flirting with the point-per-game mark, which is impressive for a young defenceman. The 24-year-old 6-foot-3 defenceman just finished his first season with the Hurricanes after a long wait overseas, tallying 33 points in 81 games, and we still haven’t seen his full potential.

Svozil looked like an intriguing talent when the Blue Jackets selected him, finishing his final junior season with 78 points in 56 games and recording an assist in his NHL debut, but those two games he played in the NHL that year would be his only two. He spent three seasons in the AHL with the Cleveland Monsters, but just signed a deal overseas with HC Kometa Brno of the top pro league in his home country. The Blue Jackets will retain his signing rights for a few years if there’s ever mutual interest in a reunion.

Kaplan spent three years with Boston University before making the jump to the AHL. He appeared in one NHL game for the Philadelphia Flyers at the end of the 2024-25 season and just completed his rookie AHL season with 13 points in 49 games. There likely isn’t a full-time NHL player here based on his production thus far, but he’s young enough to change that.

It’s only been three years, and despite only 17 games played, it’s hard not to consider Jacob Fowler a hit for the Canadiens as of right now. He put up star numbers for Boston College two years after being drafted and worked his way to the NHL in 2025-26 after bringing his NCAA talents to the AHL. He even got into a playoff game for the Habs this season. It’s going to be interesting to see how the Canadiens approach their goaltending situation going forward with both Fowler and starter Jakub Dobes, but they appear to have a potential star in Fowler on their hands.

Fransen is a project pick for the Hurricanes, as many prospects in European leagues are, but what he’s done so far in Sweden is enough to have him as a top-10 prospect according to DailyFaceoff. He’s set to play regular minutes for Farjestad BK of the SHL next season, after spending most of this season with BIK Karlskoga of Sweden’s second-tier league.

Like most players taken in the 2025 draft, there’s not much to say about Paupanekis yet. He’s a 6-foot-5 centre putting up respectable but not eye-popping numbers in the WHL. We’ll see how his game translates to the NHL when that time comes.