Toronto Maple Leafs 2011 NHL Draft Review

By Jeff Zeffer

Yesterday in the 2011 NHL Draft, Brian Burke and the Toronto Maple Leafs were quite busy selecting two players in the first round and completing their first trade of the offseason. Now even though the Maple Leafs are still without a legit first line center. Burke was still happy after what he and his team accomplished over the first round of the 2011 NHL Draft.

2011 NHL Draft

This year in the 2011 NHL Draft the Maple Leafs selected with the 22nd pick Tyler Biggs from the U.S National Development team. (Burke trades his 30th and 39th pick to move up to get Biggs) Biggs is a 6’ 2” 200lbs winger; he’s American and a prototypical Brian Burke player. Biggs is a physical winger who will sacrifice his body with and has a 20G 20A upside. Biggs’ needs to work on his passing and neutral zone play. Overall he is a safe pick in the draft. Biggs is a player I predicted that Burke would go after in Rant Sports NHL Mock Draft.

Stuart Percy was this other selection in the first round for the Maple Leafs. Percy recently played in the Memorial Cup for the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors. His performance at the Memorial Cup was one of the reasons why he was selected in the first round. If there is one thing that stands out to me about Percy is that he is very reliable being out there out on the ice, finishing the last minutes of the game. This defenseman has exceptional skating and endurance for his age. Percy’s weakness is that his puck moving defenseman skills stop at the opponents blue line. By all means he is a good at passing the puck, but I would not rely on his shot.

Trading for John Michael Liles

Burke has been pushing hard to trade for Liles over the last year and Burke finally got his wish as he finalized a trades with the Colorado Avalanche, sending a 2012 2nd round draft pick in exchange for Liles. Liles is going to be guy to replace long time Leaf Tomas Kaberle. The
Maple Leafs will benefit from Liles’ shot, skating skills and being able to successfully come out of his defensive zone.

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