'Draft Shmaft': Fletcher Builds His Own Way

Well, we're one day into the Cliff Fletcher era, and the world hasn't imploded, and the ACC is still standing.

That's a pretty good start.

Now there's a reason that Fletcher is in the Hall of Fame, and that's because the man knows what it takes to win, and how to run a team successfully.

He just hates the draft.

If you're expecting him to come in and start dealing all of the underachieving position players on this Leafs' team for high-end draft picks well, you might just want to keep pulling your hair out.

While Fletcher was GM of the Leafs, he gave up twenty-two draft picks, and acquired twenty-one. He gave up future considerations five times, while only receiving them back three times. The amount of first and second-round draft picks Fletch gave up and acquired is a wash, as he gave up and received five first round picks, while giving up and receiving three second round picks in his tenure.

Now at first look those numbers don't seem too outrageous. In many cases Fletcher was able to upgrade the Leafs standing in the draft, offering them a shot at a better player. But the deeper you dig, the more you might understand Fletch's disdain for Draft Day.

In 1991 the Maple Leafs traded their first round pick to the Islanders for the Isle's first and second picks. That second round pick was then transformed into a first and a fourth-round pick from the Capitals. The Caps ended up with Jim Carey, while the Islanders got Darius Kasparaitus. The Leafs ended up with Brandon Convery and Grant Marshall.

In 1993 the Leafs traded away a ninth-round pick to the Ottawa Senators for Brad Miller. That pick turned into Pavol Demitra.

With the first-round pick (1994) acquired in the Mats Sundin trade, the Leafs swapped it with St. Louis' first-round pick (in essence trading Nolan Baumgartner for Eric Fichaud). That wasn't so much a travesty as the Leafs taking Sean Haggerty over Patrick Elias in the second round though.

Then came 1997.

In a deal meant to vastly improve a struggling Leafs team, Fletcher did the following:

Maple Leafs trade Kenny Jonsson, Darby Hendrickson, Sean Haggerty and a 1st-round pick in 1997 (Roberto Luongo) to NY Islanders for Wendel Clark, Mathieu Schneider and D.J. Smith.

No wonder he doesn't like the draft.

Despite his propensity for would-be prospects, Fletch takes the Entry Draft for exactly what it is: A crap shoot.

Despite the fact that Fletch has given away some can't-miss talent in the draft picks he dealt, he obviously did something right to get the Leafs to the Conference Finals twice in his tenure.

How did he do that? Well he turned something into nothing.

Aside from the deals involving draft picks (how was Fletch supposed to know Luongo was going to be THIS good), Cliff has an impeccable record in the trade department. Who else could turn Vincent Damphousse Scott Thornton and Luke Richardson into Glenn Anderson, Craig Berube, and Grant Fuhr? Or Wendel Clark, Sylvain Lefebvre, and Landon Wilson to Mats Sundin? (Ok Todd Warriner and Garth Butcher came to T.O. to, but I digress).

The point is, that for the time being Cliff Fletcher is the best man for the job. Why? Because he'll turn the underachieving position players (Darcy Tucker, Jason Blake, and Pavel Kubina) into prospects (Like Jussi Jokinen or Wojtek Wolski), just like he did fifteen years ago.

Hopefully Midas didn't lose his touch.