NHL dot com thinks the Leafs would have passed on Morgan Rielly in a 2012 re-draft
Obviously, it goes without saying that these hypothetical re-drafts are merely for fun and should definitely be taken with a grain of salt. Hindsight is 20/20 and teams make the best pick that they can with the information they have available to them at the time. With that said, NHL dot com revealed its 2012 re-draft rankings and it appears as though they would have had Morgan Rielly ranked lower than #5, where he was actually selected by the Leafs.
So who did NHL dot com have ranked ahead of him in the top 5? Well, obviously, Andrei Vasilevskiy was ranked #1. Spots 2, 3 and 4 were occupied by Filip Forsberg, Jaccob Slavin and Teuvo Teravainen. So who did they have going to the Leafs at 5th overall? Toronto native Tom Wilson. Rielly would have gone to the Anaheim Ducks at #6 according to the re-draft rankings.
There's no question that the Leafs would love to get their hands on a player like Tom Wilson if given the opportunity now. That said, who knows how things would have played out for the Leafs if Morgan Rielly was never drafted. It may have changed their draft strategies every single season beyond 2012 and perhaps we don't have a roster containing the likes of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander now - not to mention all of the exciting prospects on the way, such as Nick Robertson, Matthew Knies and Topi Niemela.
If you're curious to see how the remainder of the first round would have played out according to NHL dot com, you can see the full list below.
