The Toronto Maple Leafs took a whopping 12 players in the 2020 NHL Draft. At least one player in all seven rounds, including three in the sixth and seventh rounds apiece, as promised but not quite in the way we thought it would happen. After the draft, it’s safe to say that the team’s shallow prospect depth is now spilling over the brim with talent.

For a few seasons now, Friend of the Blog Will Scouch has regularly posted videos and livestreams talking about prospects throughout the season with a data-driven focus combined with a sharp bs meter. He’s making videos of all 31 crops and the Leafs video came out yesterday!

Spoiler alert: the Leafs did great according to Will. From Rodion to Ryan! Yes, I see you going to look up this mysterious “Ryan” that we drafted with our last pick. The Leafs made a lot of educated bets with clear paths for development, along with closing their eyes and taking the obvious pick a few times.

Amirov is obviously the jewel of the class, with lots of room to develop and the talent to do so. Roni Hirvonen, Topi Niemela, and Veeti Miettinen were all picked way later than Will expected. Artur Akhtyamov is a goalie who stops pucks! How cool is that! And Will pointed to a few projects that have some very interesting upside.

At the end of his video, he gave the Leafs a grade. A number, corresponding to the peak talent that the team drafted relative to the spots they had. And a letter, corresponding to the consistency of that talent within the draft crop. The Leafs got a [redacted] which is very good/bad.

Will also made report videos on several of the Leafs picks before they were even drafted. I’ve linked them below:

Note: Will did not pay me to write this, though I should probably pay him for all his hard work and the charities he supports for all their good work.

Various Hockey Branches

The Leafs hired another guy: “Joyce served in Iraq and taught counterterrorism classes before being brought into the Panthers organization under owner Vinnie Viola, himself a former military man.”

The Leafs have a lot of prospects and it’s going to keep Katya busy all season: “Congrats, Denmark, that’s the worst hockey league website I’ve ever seen.”

Kyle Dubas spoke to the NHL Network, who apparently have a Ghost Rider-themed intro animation:

Deodorant company “Secret” has donated $1 million to the PHWPA towards having a women’s hockey season this winter.

The NHL has postponed the Winter Classic and All-Star Game. Since they’re the league’s biggest in-person cash cows, it was unreasonable to expect them to go on until fans can be in the stands. Also, neither are great TV spectacles.

A Montreal court has rejected $30M settlement in the CHL’s minimum-wage class-action lawsuit.

Connor Brown has a new deal at a cap hit larger than that of Kasperi Kapanen, Andreas Johnson, and Alex Kerfoot.

Fourth liner Jake Virtanen has a new contract with the Vancouver Canucks with fans expecting him to jump into the top-six all of a sudden.

The “Jerz” Devils have signed defenseman Dmitry Kulikov to a one-year, $1.15 million contract.

The Calgary Flames have signed Mark Donk Dominik Simon to a one-year, $700k contract.

From The Branches