{"id":721064,"date":"2026-06-07T13:50:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T13:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/721064\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T13:50:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T13:50:22","slug":"maple-leafs-draft-2026-the-recent-history-of-the-69th-overall-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/721064\/","title":{"rendered":"Maple Leafs Draft 2026: The recent history of the 69th overall pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the majority of the focus will be on the first pick<\/a>, the Maple Leafs have some other picks they\u2019re going to want to nail, too. We already took you back and revisited the 60th overall pick<\/a> from recent drafts (the Maple Leafs have that pick this year), so let\u2019s run it back and see who makes up the best and the worst of the players selected 69th overall in recent history.<\/p>\n

2010: Joe Basaraba (RW) at 69th overall to the Florida Panthers<\/p>\n

Current status: Retired<\/p>\n

Peak status: ECHL top-six F<\/p>\n

Joe Basaraba was a whiff, there\u2019s no beating around the bush for this one. He played college hockey and then stuck mostly in the ECHL, save for a 22-game AHL stint in 2014-15. That said, he got to play hockey for a living in Scotland, Romania, Italy, and Slovakia, too, so was his career really a bust? I\u2019d be thrilled with that life.<\/p>\n

2011: FORFEITED PICK (New Jersey Devils)<\/p>\n

Oops! Nobody went 69th overall in 2011. The Devils had this pick along with their 2014 first-round pick forfeited due to cap circumvention when signing Ilya Kovalchuk. Hope the Leafs can pick somebody better than, uh, nobody at 69th this year!<\/p>\n

2012: Daniel Altshuller (G) at 69th overall to the Carolina Hurricanes<\/p>\n

Current status: Retired<\/p>\n

Peak status: AHL tandem G<\/p>\n

Back to non-forfeited picks, Daniel Altshuller was the pick for the Hurricanes at 69th overall in 2012. He dipped his feet into the pros, playing in 43 AHL games and 38 ECHL games over three seasons, but retired following the 2018-19 season after appearing in two ECHL games for the Brampton Beast.<\/p>\n

2013: Nicholas Baptiste (RW) at 69th overall to the Buffalo Sabres<\/p>\n

Current status: DEL-2 (German second tier) top-six F\u00a0<\/p>\n

Peak status: NHL 4th line F<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve finally reached our first 69th overall pick since 2010 with games played in the NHL! Nick Baptiste may have only gotten a cup of coffee in the NHL, but that\u2019s more than most can say. He appeared in 47 NHL games between two seasons with the Buffalo Sabres in 2016-17 and 2017-18, including a stop with the Toronto Marlies between 2018 and 2020. He\u2019s currently playing for Dusseldorfer EG in Germany\u2019s second-tier pro league.<\/p>\n

2014: Jack Glover (D) at 69th overall to the Winnipeg Jets<\/p>\n

Current status: Retired<\/p>\n

Peak status: ECHL bottom pair D<\/p>\n

Another whiff. Glover spent four years with the University of Minnesota before joining the ECHL\u2019s Jacksonville Icemen for two years. He spent parts of his final season, 2019-20, in the ECHL, in Czechia, and in Finland before hanging up the skates.<\/p>\n

2015: Keegan Kolesar (LW) at 69th overall to the Columbus Blue Jackets<\/p>\n

Current\/peak status: NHL 4th line F<\/p>\n

Finally, an NHL player who\u2019s still in the league! It isn\u2019t the Blue Jackets reaping the rewards of the Kolesar pick, but he\u2019s currently playing in the Stanley Cup Final to complete his sixth season with the Vegas Golden Knights and finished seventh in the league in hits in 2025-26. Give any team a player like that in the third round and they\u2019ll be happy.<\/p>\n

2016: Cliff Pu (LW) at 69th overall to the Buffalo Sabres<\/p>\n

Current status: Unsigned free agent\u00a0<\/p>\n

Peak status: AHL bottom-six F<\/p>\n

Once a top talent for junior hockey\u2019s biggest powerhouse, the London Knights, Cliff Pu\u2019s career has taken a serious fall on and off the ice since then. He couldn\u2019t stick in the AHL and signed with Kunlun Red Star of the KHL in 2021-22. He most recently played in England for the EIHL\u2019s Sheffield Steelers before his contract was abruptly terminated in December 2025 due to a domestic violence charge.<\/p>\n

2017: Mackenzie Entwistle (RW) at 69th overall to the Chicago Blackhawks<\/p>\n

Current status: AHL bottom-six F<\/p>\n

Peak status: NHL 4th line F<\/p>\n

Mackenzie Entwistle can say he was a regular NHL player for three years, which, again, is more than most people can say, but he is the victim of a rare early peak. He spent his age 22-24 seasons with the Blackhawks before signing with the Florida Panthers, who have yet to use him in the NHL. At age 26, there\u2019s still time for him to make a comeback, but with just 11 points in 49 AHL games last season, it\u2019ll be an uphill battle.<\/p>\n

2018: Jake Wise (C) at 69th overall to the Chicago Blackhawks<\/p>\n

Current\/peak status: AHL middle-six F<\/p>\n

Jake Wise enjoyed a nice college career with Boston University and Ohio State University before joining the AHL in 2023-24. He isn\u2019t with the Blackhawks organization anymore, now playing for the Colorado Eagles, AHL affiliate of the Colorado Avalanche. Not much else to say about this one.<\/p>\n

2019: John Ludvig (D) at 69th overall to the Florida Panthers<\/p>\n

Current status: Czechia bottom-pair D<\/p>\n

Peak status: NHL fringe D<\/p>\n

Ludvig never played a game for the Panthers, but he did get his feet wet in the NHL between 2023 and 2025. He first appeared in 33 games with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2023-24 before getting a short stint with the Colorado Avalanche in 2024-25. He\u2019s currently playing overseas in his second season with HC Dynamo Pardubice of Czechia\u2019s pro league.<\/p>\n

2020: Alexander Nikishin (D) at 69th overall to the Carolina Hurricanes<\/p>\n

Current status: NHL top-4 D<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an interesting one. Nikishin was selected in 2020 and immediately became one of the KHL\u2019s top talents, playing for Russia\u2019s Olympic team in 2022 and regularly flirting with the point-per-game mark, which is impressive for a young defenceman. The 24-year-old 6-foot-3 defenceman just finished his first season with the Hurricanes after a long wait overseas, tallying 33 points in 81 games, and we still haven\u2019t seen his full potential.<\/p>\n

2021: Stanislav Svozil (D) at 69th overall to the Columbus Blue Jackets<\/p>\n

Current status: Czechia top-4 D<\/p>\n

Peak status: AHL top-4 D<\/p>\n

Svozil looked like an intriguing talent when the Blue Jackets selected him, finishing his final junior season with 78 points in 56 games and recording an assist in his NHL debut, but those two games he played in the NHL that year would be his only two. He spent three seasons in the AHL with the Cleveland Monsters, but just signed a deal overseas with HC Kometa Brno of the top pro league in his home country. The Blue Jackets will retain his signing rights for a few years if there\u2019s ever mutual interest in a reunion.<\/p>\n

2022: Devin Kaplan (RW) at 69th overall to the Philadelphia Flyers<\/p>\n

Current status: AHL prospect\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kaplan spent three years with Boston University before making the jump to the AHL. He appeared in one NHL game for the Philadelphia Flyers at the end of the 2024-25 season and just completed his rookie AHL season with 13 points in 49 games. There likely isn\u2019t a full-time NHL player here based on his production thus far, but he\u2019s young enough to change that.<\/p>\n

2023: Jacob Fowler (G) at 69th overall to the Montreal Canadiens<\/p>\n

Current status: Top prospect\/backup G<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only been three years, and despite only 17 games played, it\u2019s hard not to consider Jacob Fowler a hit for the Canadiens as of right now. He put up star numbers for Boston College two years after being drafted and worked his way to the NHL in 2025-26 after bringing his NCAA talents to the AHL. He even got into a playoff game for the Habs this season. It\u2019s going to be interesting to see how the Canadiens approach their goaltending situation going forward with both Fowler and starter Jakub Dobes, but they appear to have a potential star in Fowler on their hands.<\/p>\n

2024: Noel Fransen (D) at 69th overall to the Carolina Hurricanes<\/p>\n

Current status: Top-10 organizational prospect<\/p>\n

Fransen is a project pick for the Hurricanes, as many prospects in European leagues are, but what he\u2019s done so far in Sweden is enough to have him as a top-10 prospect according to DailyFaceoff<\/a>. He\u2019s set to play regular minutes for Farjestad BK of the SHL next season, after spending most of this season with BIK Karlskoga of Sweden\u2019s second-tier league.<\/p>\n

2025: Hayden Paupanekis (C) at 69th overall to the Montreal Canadiens<\/p>\n

Current status: Organizational prospect<\/p>\n

Like most players taken in the 2025 draft, there\u2019s not much to say about Paupanekis<\/a> yet. He\u2019s a 6-foot-5 centre putting up respectable but not eye-popping numbers in the WHL. We\u2019ll see how his game translates to the NHL when that time comes.<\/p>\n

Sponsored by bet365<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the majority of the focus will be on the first pick, the Maple Leafs have some other…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":721065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-721064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/721065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}