Toronto Maple Leafs Hit a Home Run Hiring Mark Leach as Amateur Scouting Director

When you have as few picks as the Toronto Maple Leafs have in the next two drafts, it's imperative that you find someone who has a track record of finding unmined gems.

There was a fair bit of consternation and gnashing of teeth when Pittsburgh Penguins GM Kyle Dubas lured Wes Clark away from his old team to head up Pittsburgh's scouting department. And there was reason for that. Clark did a very good job in Toronto.

But it's safe to see the Maple Leafs have recovered nicely by hiring Mark Leach as their new director of amateur scouting. 

Leach has worked with and under two of the best talent identifiers in the business in Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill and Joe McDonnell.

The Stars, in case you haven't been keeping score, have done a very good job of drafting players. And Leach was a big part of that as McDonnell's "right-hand man," in Nill's words. 

It will be more important than ever that Leach, who takes over a scouting department with a dearth of chances to get to the plate in the next two drafts, do what he did in Dallas. And that's find players in the middle and late rounds who can be impact players at the NHL level.

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