You can never predict the future when it comes to prospects at the NHL Entry Draft, and many teams have looked back and realized their mistake when they took the wrong player. The same could be said for the Toronto Maple Leafs at the 2015 NHL Entry Draft when they chose to select defenceman Travis Dermott in the second round instead of forward Sebastian Aho. Looking back, this was the wrong choice, as Aho has become a superstar with the Carolina Hurricanes, and while Dermott has become a serviceable defender in the NHL, he isn’t quite on the elite level that Aho is.
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Aho recently re-signed with the Hurricanes on a massive eight-year extension that will keep him there for the prime of his career. The Hurricanes have built an incredibly strong team and Aho has been a main piece of their success. If we could turn back time and the Maple Leafs chose to select Aho over Dermott, things in the NHL would be very different for both teams. The Hurricanes would still be strong, but they would have had to find another player to produce the way Aho does while the Maple Leafs would have had one of the strongest top-six forward groups in the NHL.
Positive: Matthews & Aho 1-2 Punch Down The Middle
Putting Aho on a team alongside Auston Matthews, who has been one of the most lethal offensive players the NHL has seen in a long time, would have been dangerous. They are both centres, so having two players who could lead their line and be lethal offensively would have made the Maple Leafs tough to defend. If Aho skated alongside Tyler Bertuzzi and William Nylander as the second line heading into the 2024 Trade Deadline, the club certainly wouldn’t have any worries about scoring goals with the rest of the supporting cast on top of those two.
At the time of this article, Aho has amassed 258 goals and 314 assists for 572 points through 615 games, which comes out to a 0.93 points-per-game average. It’s fair to assume he would have had the same type of production with the Maple Leafs and would have been a huge help to the team’s postseason success. Aho is a proven playoff performer with the Hurricanes (70 points in 74 games,) and with the Maple Leafs having struggled to make a deep run into the postseason for the past several seasons, Aho likely would have been someone who pushed the team over the edge and into, at least, the Eastern Conference Final.
Negative: Nylander Likely Gets Traded
The Maple Leafs selected Nylander in the first round of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft at eighth overall, and he has become a huge part of the team since joining the lineup in 2015-16. He has proven himself as a strong two-way player who can be lethal offensively and was rewarded recently with a massive eight-year extension. If the Maple Leafs had taken Aho and he broke out the same way he did with the Hurricanes, Nylander would likely have been moved to make room for Aho. There simply wouldn’t be enough cap space to keep them both on the roster, and it would have led to the team having to make a tough decision.
While it would be easy to try and move someone like John Tavares to clear up the cap space to keep both players, it wouldn’t be that easy to move someone with his $11 million cap hit. Before his extension was announced and he was making north of $11 million per season, Nylander would have been much easier to move and could have brought back a depth defender to help stabilize the back end. Luckily, the Maple Leafs never had to make this tough decision and instead have been able to retain Nylander’s services without sacrificing anything else.
Maple Leafs Missed out on Massive Opportunity
Aho has grown into a star with the Hurricanes while Dermott is a good defenceman but never provided nowhere near the value to the Maple Leafs Aho has to the Hurricanes. Dermott left the Maple Leafs in the 2021-22 season when he joined the Vancouver Canucks, and now he plays for the Edmonton Oilers. Dermott has played 338 games, scoring 16 goals and adding 46 assists for 62 points, which comes out to a 0.18 points-per-game average. He has proven himself as a solid shutdown defender, but the fit with the Maple Leafs never worked out.
Nobody can change the past, and while it would have been nice to have a lineup with Aho in it for the foreseeable future, the Maple Leafs will have to live with their decision not to take him. Hopefully, the Maple Leafs can find the right pieces before the 2024 Trade Deadline and build a team strong enough to win them their first Stanley Cup since 1967.
