MONTREAL — When Toronto Maple Leafs management interviewed their target prospects, they pulled out NHL video and questioned the kids.
“It was pretty cool. We’re going to watch a clip of, like, a breakout or something. A significant game would result. The screen will go black. And they wanted to hear what you think happened next to try and test how you see the game,” explains Toronto’s draft pick Fraser Minten.
“It was probably something I had an edge on other people — and some of the clips I recognized watching hockey during the season and already knew the scores. I think that’s an area where I’m good at understanding what’s going on.
What happens with the Maple Leafs draft strategy is finding high ceiling players who think the game as well as they play it.
“Especially with the pace of the game and what we expect from the players in our system, if they can’t think the game through, they’re just going to really struggle in games, but also in what we do developmentally,” GM Kyle said Dubas after selecting five prospects who still need years of grooming.
“(When) we look back in five, 10 years, we want to say that we unequivocally took the best player available — whether they made the NHL at 23, 24, 27.”
Meet the new hope.
Toronto Maple Leafs 2022 Draft Class:
No. 38, C Fraser MintenNo. 95, RW Nick Moldenhauer No. 122, G Dennis HildebyNo. 135, LW Nikita GrebyonkinNo. 218, C Brandon Lisowski
— Luke Fox (@lukefoxjukebox) July 8, 2022
Fraser Minten, C, 38th
When the Maple Leafs traded up from the first round to get rid of Peter Mrazek’s contract, they were thrilled that Fraser Minten was still on the board at 38 years old.
“It couldn’t have gone any better for us,” enthused Trade-Down Dubas. “A bit of luck.”
Minten is what Dubas characterized as an “intriguing” selection.
The Kamloops Blazers center is extremely intelligent and should take advantage of his club hosting the 2023 Memorial Cup.
“But the other part of it is he hasn’t been playing at a high level of hockey that long. So, he doesn’t come from a family that is deeply rooted in hockey or has a huge hockey background. He kind of carved his own path that way,” Dubas explains.
Minten is a pleasure to talk to.
He is a classically trained concert pianist who gets more nervous playing the keys than on the ice.
“It’s such an individual thing. Playing an instrument in front of a lot of people and messing up, everyone can hear it. On the ice, you have five guys behind you to make up for a mistake, and it’s kind of fluid. That’s the way hockey is – there are tons of mistakes, reads and reactions. Unlike the piano, you have to hit every note or everyone knows,” he said.
The Vancouver native absorbs every Canucks game and tries to model his game after Bo Horvat. He is defensively responsible, a bit agile and anticipates the game better than most.
“Watching hockey is not boring for me. I love watching full games,” Minten said. “I’ll sit there after practice to watch the four o’clock game, watch the seven o’clock game. I take what I can from it.
“I’m always on the right side on defense and I use gain to create offense.”
Minten realizes he needs time to grow up and needs to bulk up for the pros. The forward figures he still has two or three years left before his NHL breakthrough, but he’s already considering a career as a GM when he’s done playing.
“Very intelligent, highly competitive, knows how to win. Watching him a lot in the playoffs, he had a great playoff move. At some point I will be a captain there. I just love everything about his game,” said Wes Clark, the Leafs’ director of amateur scouting. “A really impressive kid. He really understands the game and understands it.”
Nicholas Moldenhauer, RW, 95th
You can still see the scar.
It is traced from the bottom of the prospect’s left ear, down his jaw to his chin.
The blade of an opposing skate cut Moldenhauer’s face when his Chicago Steelers played against Team USA’s under-18 team.
“It was definitely a scary moment,” Moldenhauer recalled Friday, moments after being drafted by his hometown team.
“I think we went through it as a family, not just me. A lot of people helped me get through this – just making sure I was in the right frame of mind. Definitely a tough time, but I think it’s developed me as a person and will help me moving forward.”
Although Moldenhauer already has Borge Salming looks, this Mississauga native Maple Leafs fan grew up rooting for Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. (Feeling old?)
“I’ve lived in Toronto my whole life, so to be able to be chosen by my hometown is amazing,” Moldenhauer said after a huge outpouring of his supportive family in the Bell Center stands.
“They were just as excited as I was, if not more. We were all happy to be able to share this moment together and it was just a great experience.”
The winger prides himself on his ability to create scoring chances and read his teammates. He expects to return to the USHL — where he had 18 goals and 43 points in 43 games last season — before deciding on an NCAA school.
A number of high-end programs are interested in moving forward, which makes Dubas feel comfortable about his development.
“Very intelligent, very competitive, likes to play at the net,” assessed Clark. “He can score and he can play.”
The Maple Leafs believe that mark allowed Moldenhauer to slip up to them at No. 95.
“One of the most horrible cuts you’ll see on a player,” Dubas said. “I think it affected his year and affected his draft time. Now it’s just about continuing to put in the work and getting back to the player that he was that he showed in the under-18s with Canada, then going back and playing Chicago in the playoffs.”
Dennis Hildeby, G, 122nd
It feels like the general manager is tired of discussing the organization’s spotty history of drafting and developing bona fide NHL netminders.
“It’s great to talk about, but we need them to continue to develop and join the AHL roster and then the NHL roster,” Dubas said.
“But Ferjestad’s Dennis Hildeby was a player that (goalkeeping scout) John Elkin identified very early in the year. This is a slightly different path. He’s a little older, but he had a good season this year in the SHL.”
The 20-year-old Swedish goaltender was passed over twice in the draft, but Elkin was so passionate about the potential that Dubas traded his 2023 fourth-round pick to snag the netminder.
The mobile Hildeby is 6-foot-6 and posted a .930 save percentage in seven games last year.
“I know he’s a bit older, but he’ll be in a good place there in Färjestad next year, in a tandem role,” Clarke said. “We’ll see what happens next, but we like what we see.”
Nikita Grebenkin, LW, 135th
A bit of a fifth round flyer here.
Grebenkin — a 6-foot-2, 19-year-old Russian winger — is expected to take a longer route to the NHL and has already been passed over in the 2021 draft.
He had 17 goals and 47 assists in 58 games with Magnitogorsk’s junior team, plus 13 points in nine playoff games. He was called up for one game by the KHL and has represented Russia in every age group.
“We tried to do as much homework as we could on his situation, what he wanted, and then when we put him on the list with our picks, the decision was made, ‘Let’s pick him,'” Dubas said.
The word from the eyes of Toronto overseas: machine.
“He looks like a machine and he can play,” Clark said. “He will go and try to fight for a place in Magnitogorsk. We’ll see what happens here in the next year or two. But? Mechanical. So we like that. We like the competition.”
Brandon Lisowski, C/LW, 218th
Toronto WHL scouts Darren Ritchie and Garth Malarchuk have been big fans of the 5-foot-9 Saskatoon Blades forward. They insisted that Lisowski be valued higher than the seventh round pick in which he was drafted.
The Port Coquitlam, BC native enjoyed a breakout campaign, scoring 33 goals and 58 points in 68 games. He was also at a point per game in the postseason.
The Leafs like his competitive streak, but want Lisowski to improve his skating. They will take a peek at the development camp, which begins on July 15, then let Lisowski continue to improve his game with the Blades.
“Obviously he can score, which is a great quality,” Dubas said. “Hopefully this is one of those seventh-round picks that everybody looks back on that turns out to be a good one.”
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