Leafs Prospect Camp

[sooner2220]

The roster for the upcoming prospect camp was released and I noticed a couple of omissions from the invitees. Goalie Grant Rollheiser who just finished his senior season at Boston University and Max Everson who finished the season with the Omaha Lancers of the USHL after starting the year playing for Harvard. Both of these players have had mediocre success since being drafted and I was wondering why they weren't invited to the prospect camp and if they are still Leaf property?

 

[BlueWhiteBlood]

CAMP ROSTER

FORWARDS

Matt Bellerive, Red Deer WHL
*Tyler Biggs, Oshawa OHL
*David Broll, Sault Ste. Marie OHL
*Connor Brown, Erie OHL
Josh Burnside, Mississauga OHL
*Tony Cameranesi, Minnesota Duluth NCAA
*Frederik Gauthier, Rimouski QMJHL
Kevin Goumas, New Hampshire NCAA
*Fabrice Herzog, Zug (Swiss)
*Andreas Johnson, Frolunda (Sweden)
Mike Kunzle, Kusnacht (Swiss)
*Josh Leivo, Kitchener OHL
Mack Lemmon, Belleville OHL
Beau McCue, Tri-City WHL
Matt Rupert, London OHL
*Ryan Rupert, London OHL
*Dominic Toninato, Fargo USHL
*Carter Verhaeghe, Niagara OHL
* ? Maple Leafs draft pick

DEFENCEMEN

Dominik Bittner, Mannheim (Germany)
Teddy Doherty, Boston College NCAA
*Matt Finn, Guelph OHL
*Petter Granberg, Skelleftea (Sweden)
*Eric Knodel, New Hampshire NCAA
*Viktor Loov, Sodertalje (Sweden)
*Andrew MacWilliam, North Dakota NCAA
*Tom Nilsson, Mora (Sweden)
*Stuart Percy, Mississauga OHL
Kevin Raine, Sudbury OHL
*Morgan Rielly, Moose Jaw WHL
*Dennis Robertson, Brown NCAA

GOALIES

*Antoine Bibeau, PEI QMJHL
Christopher Gibson, Chicoutimi QMJHL
Charlie Millen, Ottawa Jr. Senators CCHL
*Garret Sparks, Guelph OHL

 

[BlueWhiteBlood]

I'll say one thing, there are some crazy names on that list this year.

 

[Deebo]

It sounded like the club is pretty high on Petter Granberg.

It does sound like there is solid collection of young defenders the leafs have in the system. Based on various things I've read Gardiner, Reilly, Percy, Finn and Grannberg all have good chances at becoming NHL players.

 

[BlueWhiteBlood]

It sounded like the club is pretty high on Petter Granberg.

It does sound like there is solid collection of young defenders the leafs have in the system. Based on various things I've read Gardiner, Reilly, Percy, Finn and Grannberg all have good chances at becoming NHL players.

Yeah, I've seen a couple mentions of him, but I can't remember where. They did sign him, which to me seems early for a European player drafted where he was.

From Berger today...

Howard Berger ‏@Berger_BYTES 6h

WHL scout added: "With Rielly and (Jake) Gardiner, #Leafs will have two of the most dynamic young skaters in hockey on the blue line."


Howard Berger ‏@Berger_BYTES 6h

Talked to WHL scout Sunday. He said: "No one should be surprised if Morgan Rielly blows everyone away at #Leafs training camp. A keeper."

 

[WhatIfGodWasALeaf]

Tom Nilsson is apparently highly regarded too, a more physical less offensive gunnarsson.

 

[BlueWhiteBlood]

You'd have to give our scouting staff a fair amount of the credit, one would think. Since Morrison came in, I think the Leafs have been doing a great job of drafting. Far better than the Leafs used to in the 80's, 90's...

 

[Jalili]

You'd have to give our scouting staff a fair amount of the credit, one would think. Since Morrison came in, I think the Leafs have been doing a great job of drafting. Far better than the Leafs used to in the 80's, 90's...

Thommie Bergman too, the Leafs have had excellent luck with the Swedes.

 

[nutman]

These are good days to be a Leaf fan.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

You'd have to give our scouting staff a fair amount of the credit, one would think. Since Morrison came in, I think the Leafs have been doing a great job of drafting. Far better than the Leafs used to in the 80's, 90's...

Morrison took over the director of amateur scouting position after the 2006 draft. Since then we've drafted 5 NHLers (Frattin, Gunnarsson, Schenn, Hayes, and Kadri). Obviously there's a few guys that are potentially close like Ryan, Blacker, D'Amgio, McKegg, and Devane, and a bunch more from recent drafts that still have upsides.

So overall not bad, but I wouldn't go around giving them A+s. Particularly since that entire group of "close" prospects are pretty much 3rd and 4th liners. Then again there were of course a couple of drafts where the scouts didn't have the draft picks they would have liked.

 

[Kin]

Morrison took over the director of amateur scouting position after the 2006 draft. Since then we've drafted 5 NHLers (Frattin, Gunnarsson, Schenn, Hayes, and Kadri). Obviously there's a few guys that are potentially close like Ryan, Blacker, D'Amgio, McKegg, and Devane, and a bunch more from recent drafts that still have upsides.

So overall not bad, but I wouldn't go around giving them A+s. Particularly since that entire group of "close" prospects are pretty much 3rd and 4th liners. Then again there were of course a couple of drafts where the scouts didn't have the draft picks they would have liked.

Yeah, I actually think that the best period the Leafs had in the draft, and by a pretty considerable margin, were the Quinn years. Despite only drafting in the top 15 once between '98 and '02 the team drafted Antro, Poni, Steen, Stajan, Coli, Wellwood, Boyes, White, Pilar, Harrison. That right there is two legitimate legitimate NHL'ers per draft. Toss in fringe guys like John Mitchell, Mikael Tellqvist and Brenden Bell and considering that another of their first rounders, the only one who didn't have at least a career, had to retire because of an undiagnosed heart condition and it's a pretty good stretch.

 

[moon111]

You'd have to give our scouting staff a fair amount of the credit, one would think. Since Morrison came in, I think the Leafs have been doing a great job of drafting. Far better than the Leafs used to in the 80's, 90's...

The proper development , IMHO, been way more important then who they've drafted.  How many kids were thrown under the bus?  Example: Good for Rask, but what would the Leafs done for him?  Stick him in when he wasn't ready?  Kadri could of been a bust.

 

[BlueWhiteBlood]

You'd have to give our scouting staff a fair amount of the credit, one would think. Since Morrison came in, I think the Leafs have been doing a great job of drafting. Far better than the Leafs used to in the 80's, 90's...

Morrison took over the director of amateur scouting position after the 2006 draft. Since then we've drafted 5 NHLers (Frattin, Gunnarsson, Schenn, Hayes, and Kadri). Obviously there's a few guys that are potentially close like Ryan, Blacker, D'Amgio, McKegg, and Devane, and a bunch more from recent drafts that still have upsides.

So overall not bad, but I wouldn't go around giving them A+s. Particularly since that entire group of "close" prospects are pretty much 3rd and 4th liners. Then again there were of course a couple of drafts where the scouts didn't have the draft picks they would have liked.

Well, a fair amount of credit is not A+'s.. But, wasn't Morrison a part of Trapp's staff and then took over? He was at least a part of the Vancouver connection, wasn't he? At any rate, this is less about Morrison being the Scotty Bowman of scouting and more about giving Bergman and the rest of Morrison's staff a bit of props.

Also, wasn't Stalberg a Morrison draftee?

 

[Jalili]

The 05-07 drafts were pretty good too.

05: Rask, Stralman
06: Tlusty, Kulemin, Reimer, Holzer, Stalberg, Komarov
07: Frattin, Gunnarsson

Keep in mind, within those 3 drafts they had 3 picks in the first 2 rounds, combined.

Also interesting to note that 8/10 of the picks were Euros.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

The 05-07 drafts were pretty good too.

05: Rask, Stralman
06: Tlusty, Kulemin, Reimer, Holzer, Stalberg, Komarov
07: Frattin, Gunnarsson

Keep in mind, within those 3 drafts they had 3 picks in the first 2 rounds, combined.

Also interesting to note that 8/10 of the picks were Euros.

Barry Trapp ran those drafts. And as Nik said, the 2001/2002 drafts were both very good as well and that was when Mike Penny was running things. I preferred both of those gentlemen's work to Morrison's.

edit: Although again, in defence of Morrison, some of his work can't be judged yet.

 

[Jalili]

The 05-07 drafts were pretty good too.

05: Rask, Stralman
06: Tlusty, Kulemin, Reimer, Holzer, Stalberg, Komarov
07: Frattin, Gunnarsson

Keep in mind, within those 3 drafts they had 3 picks in the first 2 rounds, combined.

Also interesting to note that 8/10 of the picks were Euros.

Barry Trapp ran those drafts. And as Nik said, the 2001/2002 drafts were both very good as well and that was when Mike Penny was running things. I preferred both of those gentlemen's work to Morrison's.

edit: Although again, in defence of Morrison, some of his work can't be judged yet.

Morrison took over as Director of Scouting in 06 prior to the draft, didn't he? Correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm pretty sure though... as I remember an interview with Trapp where he said that had he been in charge they would have taken Chris Stewart instead of Tlusty.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Morrison took over as Director of Scouting in 06 prior to the draft, didn't he? Correct me if I'm wrong.

Yeah, you're right. Trapp was fired about a month before the 2006 draft and Morrison was promoted to his position a day before it. I thought Trapp was around for longer.

With those drafts in his resume I'll concede Morrison's record looks better than Trapps. My biggest problem with Morrison is that he doesn't seem to want to take any chances on potential highly skilled players, top-10 picks like Rielly and Kadri aside. That could also be a Burke/Nonis trait though.

I still agree with Nik in that the best Leafs drafts were the Quinn/Penny years.

 

[Jalili]

Morrison took over as Director of Scouting in 06 prior to the draft, didn't he? Correct me if I'm wrong.

Yeah, you're right. Trapp was fired about a month before the 2006 draft and Morrison was promoted to his position a day before it. I thought Trapp was around for longer.

With those drafts in his resume I'll concede Morrison's record looks better than Trapps. My biggest problem with Morrison is that he doesn't seem to want to take any chances on potential highly skilled players, top-10 picks like Rielly and Kadri aside. That could also be a Burke/Nonis trait though.

I still agree with Nik in that the best Leafs drafts were the Quinn/Penny years.

That seems to be the one damning thing about the Leafs' track record at the draft, that their success rate is quite high but glaringly lacks star power.

The Kadri/Rielly picks were definitely a shift in the right direction though.

 

[Britishbulldog]

I'm pretty sure though... as I remember an interview with Trapp where he said that had he been in charge they would have taken Chris Stewart instead of Tlusty.

I like Trapp even more now....

 

[skippy]

I'm pretty sure though... as I remember an interview with Trapp where he said that had he been in charge they would have taken Chris Stewart instead of Tlusty.

I like Trapp even more now....

John Doherty