The Toronto Maple Leafs of today are built primarily through the draft, but that wasn’t always the case.
The Leafs of the past were famous for trading their picks (Tyler Seguin, Dougie Hamilton, Scott Niedermayer) or for just making terrible selections.
The NHL draft has often been a crapshoot during the 56 years that it has been in existence. For every sure fire number-one pick that becomes a superstar such as Auston Matthews or Connor McDavid, there are flops such as Alexandre Daigle and Doug Wickenheiser.
No team is ever guaranteed that their first-round pick is going to achieve stardom or even see regular duty.