Leafs worst 1st round pick

[rdowdall]

I stumbled across an article that listed Tyler Biggs as the Leafs biggest draft bust.  The criteria they used for saying this is the following:

"The 2011 draft was a huge low point, when the Buds squandered two first round picks on Stuart Percy (25th overall) and Tyler Biggs (22nd overall). Percy has at least played 12 games at the NHL level, while Biggs is gone from the Maple Leafs system and is in the ECHL as a free agent. In the Brian Burke ?truculence? era, Biggs was square in Burke?s sights at the ?11 event, coming in at 6?2″ and 220 lbs. Unfortunately, Biggs was a bust in the AHL with the Marlies and was eventually sent to the ECHL?s Orlando Solar Bears in 2015 before being included in the Phil Kessel trade to Pittsburgh."

That got me looking through the Leafs draft history and seeing if I could find someone who would be considered more of a bust then Biggs.  See the thing is, I think that while Biggs didn't amount to much, you have to take other things in to consideration, such as draft position and who else was available.  There were better options than Biggs at the time of the draft, and I believe several brought that up at the time, so maybe you feel he is the biggest bust as well.  Here's a list of the Leafs first round picks over the years, and what they accomplished in the NHL.  Obviously some of these are not going to be in the conversation because they were really good picks, but I thought I would include them all as a nice walk down memory lane. 

Year	Position	Player	Games Played	Points
2017	17th Overall	Timothy Liljegren	0	0
2016	1st Overall	Auston Matthews	98	88
2015	4th Overall	Mitch Marner	96	76
2014	8th Overall	William Nylander	122	87
2013	21st Overall	Frederic Gauthier	28	4
2012	5th Overall	Morgan Reilly	331	135
2011	22nd Overall	Tyler Biggs	0	0
2011	25th Overall	Stuart Percy	12	3
2009	7th Overall	Nazem Kadri	427	274
2008	5th Overall	Luke Schenn	664	138
2006	13th Overall	Jiri Tlusty	446	177
2005	21st Overall	Tukka Rask	407	9
2002	24th Overall	Alexander Steen	835	540
2001	17th Overall	Carlo Colaiacovo	470	157
2000	24th Overall	Brad Boyes	822	505
1999	24th Overall	Luca Cereda	0	0
1998	10th Overall	Nikolai Antropov	788	465
1995	15th Overall	Jeff Ware	21	1
1994	16th Overall	Eric Fichaud	95	1
1993	12th Overall	Kenny Jonsson	686	267
1993	19th Overall	Landon Wilson	375	119
1992	8th Overall	Brandon Convery	72	28
1992	23rd Overall	Grant Marshall	700	239
1990	10th Overall	Drake Berehowsky	549	149
1989	3rd Overall	Scott Thorton	941	285
1989	12th Overall	Rob Pearson	269	110
1989	21st Overall	Steve Bancroft	6	1
1988	6th Overall	Scott Pearson	292	98
1987	7th Overall	Luke Richardson	1417	201
1986	6th Overall	Vincent Damphousse	1378	1205
1985	1st Overall	Wendel Clark	793	564
1984	4th Overall	Al Iafrate	799	463
1983	7th Overall	Russ Courtnall	1029	744
1982	3rd Overall	Gary Nylund	608	171
1981	6th Overall	Jim Benning	610	243
1979	9th Overall	Laurie Boschman	1009	577
1977	11th Overall	John Andersen	814	631
1977	12th Overall	Trevor Johansen	286	57
1975	6th Overall	Dan Ashby	188	96
1974	13th Overall	Jack Valiquette	350	218
1973	4th Overall	Lanny McDonald	1111	1006
1973	10th Overall	Bob McNeely	283	98
1973	15th Overall	Ian Turnbull	628	440
1972	11th Overall	George Ferguson	797	398
1970	8th Overall	Daryl Sittler	1096	1121
1969	9th Overall	Ernie Moser	0	0
1968	10th Overall	Brad Selwood	163	47
1966	4th Overall	John Wright	127	52
1964	5th Overall	Tom Martin	3	1
1963	6th Overall	Walt McKechnie	955	606

So for me, it's 1988's Scott Pearson (sorry Scott).  I feel that with a 6th overall pick, you should get a pretty good player.  I think I read somewhere that the Leafs reached on him in that draft, which I think is supported by the fact that the next 4 players taken in that draft were Martin Gelinas, Jeremy Roenick, Rod Brind'Amour, and Teemu Selanne. 

 

[Kin]

Pearson or Convery I suppose. I'm inclined to lean towards Convery if only because it's post-Ballard and the team was at least in theory being run by competent professionals.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

I'm slightly less critical of a teams drafting record prior to the invention of the internet. Biggs was certainly the worst 1st rounder of the past 20 years. Percy was the second worst. What a terrible draft.

 

[rdowdall]

Pearson or Convery I suppose. I'm inclined to lean towards Convery if only because it's post-Ballard and the team was at least in theory being run by competent professionals.

I thought about Convery as well, but when you look at the draft, they only really missed out on Gonchar, Jason Smith or Martin Straka.  It wasn't an overly strong draft, so it depends on how that factors in to the whole biggest miss equation.

 

[rdowdall]

I'm slightly less critical of a teams drafting record prior to the invention of the internet. Biggs was certainly the worst 1st rounder of the past 20 years. Percy was the second worst. What a terrible draft.

The modern internet has technically been around since 1983. 

 

[CarltonTheBear]

I'm slightly less critical of a teams drafting record prior to the invention of the internet. Biggs was certainly the worst 1st rounder of the past 20 years. Percy was the second worst. What a terrible draft.

The modern internet has technically been around since 1983. 

This is true, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that NHL GMs weren't exactly on the cutting edge of that stuff.

 

[Kin]

Pearson or Convery I suppose. I'm inclined to lean towards Convery if only because it's post-Ballard and the team was at least in theory being run by competent professionals.

I thought about Convery as well, but when you look at the draft, they only really missed out on Gonchar, Jason Smith or Martin Straka.  It wasn't an overly strong draft, so it depends on how that factors in to the whole biggest miss equation.

Yeah, but with '88 you're talking about Stellick making the pick with 6 weeks on the job and with the crazy old man probably yelling something about no europeans. It's a lousy pick but understandable given the circumstances.

 

[Arn]

Interesting, just to go back as far as 2000 (which sort of ties in with when I began following the Leafs more or less) there's quite a few good players in there. Problem is most of them probably ended up being better once they left Toronto...

 

[rdowdall]

Pearson or Convery I suppose. I'm inclined to lean towards Convery if only because it's post-Ballard and the team was at least in theory being run by competent professionals.

I thought about Convery as well, but when you look at the draft, they only really missed out on Gonchar, Jason Smith or Martin Straka.  It wasn't an overly strong draft, so it depends on how that factors in to the whole biggest miss equation.

Yeah, but with '88 you're talking about Stellick making the pick with 6 weeks on the job and with the crazy old man probably yelling something about no europeans. It's a lousy pick but understandable given the circumstances.

This is true.  I didn't factor that in to the equation.  The thought of this made me laugh.

 

[rdowdall]

I'm slightly less critical of a teams drafting record prior to the invention of the internet. Biggs was certainly the worst 1st rounder of the past 20 years. Percy was the second worst. What a terrible draft.

The modern internet has technically been around since 1983. 

This is true, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that NHL GMs weren't exactly on the cutting edge of that stuff.

Oh sure.  Next your going to tell me that there are some that aren't embracing analytics.

 

[rdowdall]

Interesting, just to go back as far as 2000 (which sort of ties in with when I began following the Leafs more or less) there's quite a few good players in there. Problem is most of them probably ended up being better once they left Toronto...

See in that list, Luke Schenn is an interesting case.  The Leafs didn't reach on him, and the consensus was that he should be picked around 5 or 6, but he didn't really amount to the player that you would be expecting to get at that spot in the draft.  So is he a bust? 

 

[Highlander]

Luke is not a bust because he gave us JVR and I believe he is still playing somewhere in the NHL.

 

[bustaheims]

All factors considered, I think Biggs is the right call. There were better players available, the team wasn't being run by a bigot, and they actually traded up to acquire him. Convery wasn't great, but it wasn't a great draft. Pearson wasn't great, but Stellick/Ballard. A number of the early picks weren't great, but, teams didn't seem to really understand the draft yet. Cereda didn't work out, but the circumstances there came after the draft.

I was leaning towards Ware for a bit, but that was also a bad draft. There were a couple better choices, but no one who stood out as being the guy they clearly should have picked with the scouting reports they likely had.

 

[Kin]

Interesting, just to go back as far as 2000 (which sort of ties in with when I began following the Leafs more or less) there's quite a few good players in there. Problem is most of them probably ended up being better once they left Toronto...

See in that list, Luke Schenn is an interesting case.  The Leafs didn't reach on him, and the consensus was that he should be picked around 5 or 6, but he didn't really amount to the player that you would be expecting to get at that spot in the draft.  So is he a bust?

I think that's a case where scouting just hadn't caught up to the realities of the new NHL. A bust? Sure. But he was the consensus pick there.

Although the same GM picked Convery so...

 

[Kin]

So I guess he doesn't really qualify because he had a NHL career but maybe some thought to it being getting Thornton with the #3 pick in what was one of the 5 best NHL drafts of all time?

 

[rdowdall]

Luke is not a bust because he gave us JVR and I believe he is still playing somewhere in the NHL.

He plays for Arizona.  I guess that stuff should factor in to the decision.  If you were able to recoup something from the situation, then the pick probably isn't that bad, and the thread title does say "Leafs worst 1st round pick". 

I think I get tied up on the "what could have been" scenarios when I look at some of these lists from the past.  For me, the 80's were just so much of a debacle.  They had a lot of high draft picks, and they should have been able to turn that in to something that was more sustainable than what they ended up with.  Probably that is what causes me to have this feeling that the other shoe is going to drop with the current Leafs, even though the situations are pretty different. 

 

[bustaheims]

So I guess he doesn't really qualify because he had a NHL career but maybe some thought to it being getting Thornton with the #3 pick in what was one of the 5 best NHL drafts of all time?

Yeah, but the Ballard factor is in there for that one - that's the infamous Belleville Bulls draft, when the rumour is the scouting department didn't have the budget to scout too far outside the GTA.

 

[rdowdall]

So I guess he doesn't really qualify because he had a NHL career but maybe some thought to it being getting Thornton with the #3 pick in what was one of the 5 best NHL drafts of all time?

Yeah, so when I was looking at it, I had Pearson,  Convery and Thorton as my top three.  Biggs was fourth just because of the position he was taken in the draft.  I feel that higher picks should have a higher chance of being something.  I moved away from Thorton because as you mentioned, he had a pretty long career, but it should have been better given his position.

 

[rdowdall]

So I guess he doesn't really qualify because he had a NHL career but maybe some thought to it being getting Thornton with the #3 pick in what was one of the 5 best NHL drafts of all time?

Yeah, but the Ballard factor is in there for that one - that's the infamous Belleville Bulls draft, when the rumour is the scouting department didn't have the budget to scout too far outside the GTA.

Yep, I think I missed Rob Pearson on the list as well.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

So I guess he doesn't really qualify because he had a NHL career but maybe some thought to it being getting Thornton with the #3 pick in what was one of the 5 best NHL drafts of all time?

Yeah, but the Ballard factor is in there for that one - that's the infamous Belleville Bulls draft, when the rumour is the scouting department didn't have the budget to scout too far outside the GTA.

Yep, I think I missed Rob Pearson on the list as well.

And the 3rd guy from that 1st round, Steve Bancroft (6 NHL games played, 5 of them coming when he was 30 years old).