With the Edmonton Oilers in search of their next General Manager after it was announced Ken Holland would not be returning to the team, there have been a plethora of names thrown around. One name in particular that has been around since February is that of former Maple Leafs co-General Manager Mark Hunter.
Hunter was also considered for the Calgary Flames open general manager position last summer, and it looks like Hunter is once again tied with a move to Alberta. Would bringing in Hunter be a good move for the cup contending Oilers? Let’s take a deeper look.
Who is Mark Hunter?
Hunter played in the NHL for 12 years in the ‘80s and ‘90s, winning a Stanley Cup with the Calgary Flames in 1989. After retiring in 1993 Hunter quickly made the switch to off-ice work, getting a job as the head coach of the OHL’s Sarnia Sting.
Hunter would spend two years in the role, before making the jump to the AHL as the head coach of the St. John’s Maple Leafs for the 1996–97 season. Hunter spent one season with the team before leaving to rejoin the Sarnia Sting as their head coach once again. He would coach the team for three more seasons, losing in the first round of the playoffs each year.
Following the 1999–2000 season, Hunter and his brother Dale purchased the London Knights OHL franchise. Hunter would serve as the Knight’s VP. of Hockey Operations and General Manager for 14 seasons until 2014–15. Across that time, the Knights became the class of the OHL, winning three OHL championships and one memorial cup. In particular Hunter also took over the role of head coach in 2011–12 and led the team to an OHL title.
In October of 2014 Hunter left his general manager role with the Knights for his first NHL position as the director of player personnel for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Soon after in April of 2015, Hunter was named co-general manager of the Maple Leafs along with Kyle Dubas. There isn’t a ton of information out there on how Hunter and Dubas divided up their roles, however it’s widely thought that Hunter was mainly in charge of the Maple Leafs drafting between 2015 and 2017, while Dubas handled more of the team management aspect. More on that in a bit.
After Kyle Dubas was named the full-time general manager of the Maple Leafs over him in 2018, Hunter mutually agreed to part ways with the Maple Leafs. Following his departure from the Maple Leafs, Hunter returned to his role as the general manager of the London Knights in 2018–19, which is where he has worked since. He’s also listed as the organization’s V.P. of hockey operations. He most recently led the Knights to yet another OHL championship in 2023–24, eventually losing in the Memorial Cup Final.
Internationally he also served as Canada’s World Junior general manager for the 2020 tournament where Canada claimed the gold medal.
A rough history at the draft
As mentioned above, it’s believed Hunter was mainly in charge of the Maple Leafs drafting for the 2015, 2016, and 2017 drafts. To say those drafts were underwhelming for Toronto would be an understatement. The Leafs drafting in that three year period should come as a major red flag for an Oilers team that already has a pretty thin prospect pool.
Here’s how it breaks down.
2017
| Num. | Round | Player | Pos | Drafted From | GP | G | A | Pts |
| 17 | 1 | Timothy Liljegren | D | Rogle BK Angelholm [SweHL] | 196 | 14 | 51 | 65 |
| 59 | 2 | Eemeli Rasanen | D | Kingston Frontenacs [OHL] | ||||
| 110 | 4 | Ian Scott | G | Prince Albert Raiders [WHL] | ||||
| 124 | 4 | Vladislav Kara | L | Kazan [Russia-Jrs] | ||||
| 141 | 5 | Fedor Gordeev | D | Flint Firebirds [OHL] | ||||
| 172 | 6 | Ryan McGregor | C | Sarnia Sting [OHL] | ||||
| 203 | 7 | Ryan O’Connell | D | St. Andrews [Ont. H.S.] |
2016
| Num. | Round | Player | Pos | Drafted From | GP | G | A | Pts |
| 1 | 1 | Auston Matthews | C | Zurich SC [Swiss-A] | 562 | 368 | 281 | 649 |
| 31 | 2 | Egor Korshkov | L | Yaroslavl Lokomotiv [KHL] | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 57 | 2 | Carl Grundstrom | R | MODO Hockey Ornskoldsvik [SweHL] | 236 | 40 | 27 | 67 |
| 62 | 3 | Joseph Woll | G | U.S. National Development Team [USHL] | 36 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 72 | 3 | J.D. Greenway | D | U.S. National Development Team [USHL] | ||||
| 92 | 4 | Adam Brooks | C | Regina Pats [WHL] | 43 | 6 | 5 | 11 |
| 101 | 4 | Keaton Middleton | D | Saginaw Spirit [OHL] | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 122 | 5 | Vladimir Bobylev | L | Victoria Royals [WHL] | ||||
| 152 | 6 | Jack Walker | L | Victoria Royals [WHL] | ||||
| 179 | 6 | Nicolas Mattinen | D | London Knights [OHL] | ||||
| 182 | 7 | Nikolai Chebykin | L | MVD Jrs (Russia) |
2015
| Num. | Round | Player | Pos | Drafted From | GP | G | A | Pts |
| 4 | 1 | Mitch Marner | R | London Knights [OHL] | 576 | 194 | 445 | 639 |
| 34 | 2 | Travis Dermott | D | Erie Otters [OHL] | 329 | 16 | 46 | 62 |
| 61 | 2 | Jeremy Bracco | R | U.S. National Development Team [USHL] | ||||
| 65 | 3 | Andrew Nielsen | D | Lethbridge Hurricanes [WHL] | ||||
| 68 | 3 | Martins Dzierkals | R | Riga Jrs. (Russia) | ||||
| 95 | 4 | Jesper Lindgren | D | MODO Jrs. (Sweden) | ||||
| 125 | 5 | Dmytro Timashov | L | Quebec Remparts [QMJHL] | 45 | 4 | 5 | 9 |
| 155 | 6 | Stephen Desrocher | D | Oshawa Generals [OHL] | ||||
| 185 | 7 | Nikita Korostelev | R | Sarnia Sting [OHL] |
During the three-year stretch, the Maple Leafs picked a total of 27 times. Of those 27 picks, 10 have played NHL games. That said, only five have played over 50 NHL games, and two of those were top five picks in Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner who were both guarantees to reach the 50-game mark in their rookie years.
Outside of the three first-round picks the Leafs made under Hunter, they picked 24 times between rounds two and seven. Only seven of those picks have played NHL games, and only two have played over 50 NHL games. Yes, only two out of 24 players selected. On top of that both were second-round picks in Travis Dermott and Carl Grundstrom, both of whom are no longer with the Maple Leafs.
Not a single player Hunter picked after the second round has played over 50 NHL games seven years after his last draft with Toronto. Drafting in the NHL is incredibly tough, but batting at around 8% after the first round is pretty awful. For context during that same period former Oilers General Manager Peter Chiarelli made 19 picks after the second of the draft, with five playing at least 50 games in the NHL or around 26%. If Peter Chiarelli is out drafting you, that’s not a great sign.
In particular, Hunter’s work in the 2016 draft was a disaster. With the Leafs in full rebuild mode, the team made a total of 11 draft picks as they looked to stock the cupboards for the future. Outside of the obvious Matthews selection, the Leafs had a disastrous draft that set the franchise back after acquiring so many picks. The only player of note other than Matthews that is still in the organization just seven years later is Joseph Woll who has 36 NHL games under his belt.
In the 2015 draft, the Leafs selected just two players who have played NHL games after the first round. Neither are still in the organization and only Dermott is still in the NHL. In 2017 they didn’t get a single NHL player after the first round. Now obviously the Oilers aren’t rebuilding and stocking pick anytime soon, but missing on so many mid to late round picks is a major red flag.
In summary, Hunter has a good history of making top five or top 20 picks in the draft, but after that it gets incredibly rough. That’s certainly not a great sign for an Oilers team who is very likely going to be picking at the end of the first round or not until later rounds of the draft for years to come as they continue to push for a Stanley Cup. Contending teams heavily rely on hitting on mid to late round picks to build their prospect pool, and Hunter isn’t exactly an expert in that area if history is any indication.
An old-fashioned approach
As mentioned earlier, Hunter is very much an old fashioned general manager. Not too different from the likes of Ken Holland. He’s 64 years old, been around hockey since the ‘80s and has had experience working in the NHL to limited success. On top of that during his short time in Toronto, his approach to player personnel and drafting was certainly not forward thinking or progressive.
Hunter’s M.O. going into the draft was almost always to add more size to the prospect pool—particularly on the back-end. This is of course an incredibly outdated and old fashioned strategy and rarely leads to success. For example, he went off the board to take defencemen like the 6’5″ Nicolas Mattinen and 6’6″ Keaton Middleton in 2016, and the 6’6″ Fedor Gordeev and 6’5″ Eemeli Rasanen in 2017. None of the four played in the NHL.
Here’s a fun one. Across the three drafts in Toronto Hunter was in charge of, the team selected just three players standing under six feet tall across all 27 of their picks. In fact, they selected more players 6’5″ or taller than players under six feet across those three drafts. In the infamous 2016 draft, they used just one of their 11 picks on a player under six feet. In 2015 they didn’t select a single player under six feet, and in 2017 they selected two.
Puzzling decisions abound
Another weird trend with Hunter’s drafting was his obsession with drafting over-age players, and in particular Russians. In 2017 he took 19-year-old Vladislav Kara in the fourth round, and then in 2016 he took both 19-year-old Egor Korshkov in the second round and 19-year-old Vladimir Bobylev in the fifth round. None of them played in the NHL.
One especially egregious pick was the Korshkov selection in 2016. Going into the draft Korshkov was nearly 20 years old after being passed up in both 2014 and 2015. He was ranked 65th by Bob McKenzie, 102nd by Future Considerations, and 118 by Hockeyprospect.com. For whatever reason, Hunter reportedly pushed for the Leafs to take Korshkov over Alex DeBrincat with the first pick of the second round at 31st overall, a full round before he was expected to be taken. Korshkov played one NHL game and is currently in the KHL.
Hunter’s obsession with size over skill in the draft really hurt the Leafs and set them back years. It wasn’t until Dubas took over in 2018 that the team started to really rebuild their prospect pool. Taking bigger or over-age players can certainly pay off at times, but it’s not a strategy that should be the main focus of a teams draft approach in this day and age.
If there’s any team that knows just how important skill and speed is, it’s the Oilers. Bringing in a general manager who mainly prioritizes size over skill would be a puzzling direction to take for a team that just finished one win from wining the Stanley Cup based on their skill and speed.
The London Knights and OHL connection
Now if there is one area where Hunter would make sense for the Oilers, it’s his connection with the London Knights. Hunter and his brother Tim have run the Knights for years, turning them into a factory for NHL talent. The Oilers of course know this very well as they have continuously drafted out of the Knights pool of talent over the years.
The most obvious example is of course the selection of Evan Bouchard at 10th overall back in 2018. Hunter was the general manager when the Knights selected Bouchard 17th overall in the 2015 OHL priority draft. He was also the team’s general manager for Bouchard’s final season in London in 2018–19.
More recently, the Oilers selected two Knights in the 2024 draft including first-round pick Sam O’Reilly. They also selected centre William Nicholl in the seventh round. The Oilers obviously believe in the NHL factory that is the Knights, so it makes sense to be interested in the man behind the Knights operations in Hunter.
Even in a more broad sense, it’s clear the Oilers like picking out of the OHL. They’ve selected six players out of the OHL across the past two drafts, and no one knows the OHL better than Hunter. Across his three drafts with the Maple Leafs, Hunter selected nine OHL players.
2 Comments