Quoting: aadoyle
Every time the Leafs have drafted a Knight results have been pretty good
Sittler 1970
Kadri 2009
Marner 2015
and now Cowen 2023
Nice
Read a bunch of scout reports and looked at his numbers at the beginning and end of the season and man if he played like he did the second half for the whole year he may have pushed into the top 20's for picks
Quoting: CameronSquires
I think Wes Clark knows more than you about drafting man. Just watch his development and then judge
I am absolutely a coach potato scout but tell me if this sounds familiar:
Minten also was somewhat of a reach, depending on whose rankings you trust. He was a big but lanky center in the WHL who was under a point per game, which is not usually the hallmark of a near first round pick. What he did have
was a late surge in his development, running at a point per game down the stretch and into the playoffs. His final draft rankings didn't necessarily rise close to where Toronto took him, but they all almost universally called out his improvements late in the year.
Pretty much all of his spike in production came on the powerplay, to the point that quite a few scouts publicly commented about his low percentage of even strength points. He had 12 more points while playing in 10 fewer games. Those 12 extra points came all from the powerplay, so overall his even strength point production remained the same.
Most of us are only questioning the selection for Cowan at 28th and the talent still left on the board.
At least under John Lilley (2018-2021) you could see the talent with the top picks: Sandin, Durzi, Robertson, Amirov, Hirvonen, Niemela, Knies.
I don’t like the direction under Wes Clark: Minten, Cowan