Toronto Maple Leafs: Looking Back at the 2008 NHL Draft

In the second part of this five-part series leading up to the 2012 NHL entry draft in Pittsburgh, PA, we'll take a look back at the Toronto Maple Leafs' 2008 draft selections.

This was considered to be the first year of the Toronto Maple Leafs re-build, and the Leafs wasted no time in moving up to the fifth overall selection to acquire their preferred youngster.

Just as I did in part one of this series (which took a look back at Toronto's 2007 draft), I'll examine the picks round-by-round.

In 2008, Toronto had one selection in each of the first two rounds, one in the fourth round, three more in the fifth round and one in the sixth.

1st Round

Back in June of 2008, the Toronto Maple Leafs were originally slotted in the seventh overall slot.

Afraid that their target would not be available by the time they were on the clock, the Leafs packaged the seventh overall pick, as well as their third-round pick in 2008 as well as their second selection in 2009 and traded them to the New York Islanders in exchange for New York's fifth overall pick.

With the fifth overall selection, the Leafs proceeded to draft Kelowna Rockets stay-at-home defenseman Luke Schenn.

While most players would normally spend another year playing junior hockey and maybe a year in the AHL to further develop, the Leafs elected to start the 18-year-old Saskatoon native from the get-go as their defense corps was in shambles.

Schenn is now 22 years old and has logged over 300 career games for the Maple Leafs with a career player rating of minus-23.

While the young defender may not yet be the type of shutdown player that Leafs fans had hoped he'd become, it's important to remember that Schenn is still extremely young and still developing.

Verdict: Solid pick. Traded up to acquire desired target, who has contributed on defense from day one

2nd Round

Toronto's second pick in 2008 wouldn't come again until the end of the second round, when they chose American winger Jimmy Hayes with the 60th overall selection.

After being drafted, Hayes would continue to play college hockey for the NCAA's Boston College, before eventually being dealt to the Chicago Blackhawks on June 26, 2010, for the 43rd overall selection in that year's draft.

After a seven-game stint at the end of the 2010-2011 season with the AHL's Rockford Ice Hogs, the 22-year-old Hayes spent his first full season in professional hockey split between the AHL and NHL.

In Chicago this season, the 6'6" Hayes accumulated nine points and 16 penalty minutes in 31 games.

Verdict: Nice pick at 60th overall but dealt away a few years later

4th Round

At 98th overall, the Maple Leafs took promising young Belarussian center Mikhail Stefanovich of the QMJHL's Quebec Remparts.

After quickly adjusting to the North American style of play, Stefanovich was named to the CHL's Top Prospects game and went on to win the Mike Bossy Trophy for being the QMJHL's top professional prospect.

After playing two more seasons in Quebec, Stefanovich was assigned to the Toronto Marlies and eventually Reading Royals (Toronto's ECHL affiliate) before being loaned to the KHL's Minsk Dynamo where he's played a total of 26 games over the last two seasons.

In January of last year, the Leafs traded his NHL rights to the Dallas Stars for Fabian Brunnstrom.

Verdict: Appeared to be a steal of a pick at the time but Stefanovich was never able to find his game in Toronto.

5th Round

The fifth round of the 2008 NHL entry draft was a busy one for Cliff Fletcher and the rest of the Maple Leafs' management team.

They held picks 128 through 130, meaning they would have to prepare for all three picks at once.

With their first selection of the fifth round, the Leafs took Greg Pateryn—a defenseman for the Ohio Junior Blue Jackets of the USHL.

Pateryn is now a part of the Montreal Canadiens organization and has spent the past four seasons with the University of Michigan.

With pick No. 129 of the draft, the Leafs selected Joel Champagne—a 6'4" center who played for the Chicoutimi Sagueneens of the QMJHL.

After a few more seasons playing junior hockey, the Leafs elected not to sign Champagne, who signed an AHL contract with the Milwaukee Admirals on May 31 of last year.

With their third and final pick in the fifth round, the Maple Leafs would choose Jerome Flaake of the German League's Cologne Sharks.

Flaake now plays for the Hamburg Freezers in Germany and never made the jump to North American hockey.

Verdict: While fifth rounders don't carry high expectations, it was a rather disappointing round nonetheless.

6th Round

Without having a pick in the draft's seventh and final round, the Maple Leafs' last selection in the 2008 draft came at 158th overall in the sixth round.

With that pick, Toronto chose Chilliwack, British Columbia native Grant Rollheiser.

Still a Leafs prospect, Rollheiser has spent the past few seasons playing NCAA hockey for the Boston University Terriers as a backup.

Hockeysfuture.com has his potential listed at 5.0 and not likely to ever achieve said potential.

Verdict: Wasted pick

Follow @LeafsWriterBR