Ranking Toronto Maple Leafs' all-time top 5 strongest NHL draft classes

The Toronto Maple Leafs are one of the original six teams in the NHL and have drafted several Hall of Famers.

As the 2025 NHL Draft is set for June 27-28 in Los Angeles, let's take a look back at the Maple Leafs' best draft classes of all time.

Toronto Maple Leafs' all-time top 5 draft classes

#5, 2016 NHL Draft

The Toronto Maple Leafs had the first overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft and selected Auston Matthews.

Matthews is one of the best players in the NHL, and if that were the only pick, Toronto made it still would have been a successful draft class.

Yet, the Maple Leafs also picked Joseph Woll in the third round who could be the team's starting goalie of the future. Just those two picks make it a successful draft, given that Matthews will be a future Hall of Famer.

#4, 2002 NHL Draft

The 2002 NHL Draft saw the Maple Leafs take Alexander Steen in the first round. Steen played over 1000 NHL games, including four years with Toronto.

The Maple Leafs used their second-round pick on Matt Stajan, who played 1003 games, including parts of seven years with Toronto. He was also a key part of the Dion Phaneuf trade.

Toronto also selected Ian White in the sixth round, who played 500+ games in the NHL.

#3, 1970 NHL Draft

The 1970 NHL Draft was similar to the 2016 one, where the first pick alone is worth being one of the five best draft classes in Maple Leafs' history.

With Toronto's first pick, which was eighth overall, the Maple Leafs selected Darryl Sittler. Sittler is in the Hall of Fame and has his number retired by the Maple Leafs.

Toronto also has four other players who have played 70+ games, and three players have played 380+ games.

#2, 2006 NHL Draft

The 2006 NHL Draft didn't see the Maple Leafs draft any Hall of Famers, but Toronto nearly went perfect on all their picks.

The Maple Leafs picked Jiri Tlusty in the first round, who played 446 NHL games. Toronto made seven picks in the draft, and six of the seven played NHL games and all of them played 200+ games.

The draft class also featured Nikolai Kulemin, James Reimer, Korbinian Holzer, Viktor Stalberg, and Leo Komarov, all being picked.

#1, 1963 NHL Draft

Toronto's first-ever NHL Draft is likely the best.

The Maple Leafs had just four picks, and three of the four all played NHL games, while the three had huge impacts.

Toronto's first pick was Walt McKechnie, who played 955 games, Jim McKenny played 604 games, and the final pick, Gerry Meehan, had 670 games.

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Edited by Cole Shelton