Toronto Maple Leafs: Top Five Defenders For 2017 NHL Draft
The Toronto Maple Leafs draft position doesn’t look like it will be narrowed down anytime soon as they continue their push for the playoffs.
Even still, the Toronto Maple Leafs should be looking toward the defensive side of things given how thin the pool is on that side of the ice.
Timothy Liljegren is the consensus number one defender for the upcoming NHL Draft, but after that it’s anyone’s guess as to how will be selected.
Here are the top five defenders from four scouting outlets latest rankings via EliteProspects.com:
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Liljegren is tops across the board, with two #2 rankings, a #4 and a #7. McKeen’s Hockey doesn’t have another defender in the top ten, while Hockey Prospect seems to think that Callan Foote might not be as far behind the Swedish defender as people think.
Three defenders appear in three of the four rankings. Foote (8-10-14), Miro Heiskanen (11-11-16), Nicolas Hague (9-12-19) and Juuso Valimaki (11-13-20).
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Cale Makar and Urho Vaakanainen are the two wildcards who find themselves ranked in the top five defenders in two of the rankings.
There is still a lot of time for change to occur, and major change can happen. Just look at Halifax Mooseheads superstar Nico Hischier, who is single-handedly making the Mooseheads relevant in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. He’s all the way up to 1-2-3-4 in the four outlets above.
Should the Leafs end up making the playoffs, they’ll likely be able to cross Liljegren and Foote off of their wish list immediately.
Which narrows down the top five defenders for the Leafs to look at to the following:
Heiskanen and Vaakanainen are both playing pro in Finland’s Liiga this season, while Hague and Valimaki are playing in the CHL and Makar in the AJHL. We looked at Hague and Valimaki earlier in the season and will update on the other three later this month.
If you had to choose a defender for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round, and it couldn’t be Liljegren or Foote, who would you pick? From this list or elsewhere. Let us know in the comments.
