The Toronto Maple Leafs hired Judd Bracket as an assistant GM on Monday, and he will oversee amateur and professional scouting. For the last 11 years, he's been the director of amateur scouting, split between the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Wild. Here is Brackett's history at the NHL draft.
The Toronto Maple Leafs made a pair of hires on Monday, bringing on Judd Brackett as assistant GM and Freddie Hamilton as chief of staff.
Brackett previously spent six years with the Minnesota Wild as their director of amateur scouting and has run the last five drafts for that organization. Before his time with the Wild, he was with the Vancouver Canucks for 12 years, with his final five years there as the director of amateur scouting.
Brackett's new role with the Maple Leafs is to oversee player evaluation across amateur and professional scouting. So while he's not the director of amateur scouting for Toronto - that's Mark Leach's role - he'll likely have a strong say in the upcoming draft.
With that in mind, here is a look at Brackett's drafting history when he was the director of amateur scouting with the Wild and Canucks over the last 11 years.
Brackett helped decide on six first-round picks in his last five drafts for Minnesota. There are a few notable names that come up, but no one that jumps out as a clever pick late in the draft.
Zeev Buium, Charlie Stramel, Liam Ohgren, Danila Yurov, Jesper Wallstedt and Carson Lambos are the five first-rounders. Of the batch, Ohgren has the most NHL games under his belt with 97 appearances.
None of these picks has set the league alight, but Buium and Wallstedt could be on a path to becoming stars in this league. And even though Buium and Ohgren are no longer on the Wild, they were assets that helped acquire defenseman Quinn Hughes from the Canucks.
Some other notable prospects that have come outside the first round include second-rounders Hunter Haight in 2022, who is an AHL regular at 22 years old and Riley Heidt in 2023, who has recorded three 90-plus-point seasons in the WHL.
Another notable selection is fourth-round pick Adam Benak, who scored 77 points in the OHL this past year and had a big showing for Czechia at the 2026 World Junior Championship.
In five drafts as the director of amateur scouting for the Canucks, Brackett had four first-rounders to work with, two of which were top-five picks.
The biggest name Vancouver selected with Brackett at the wheel was Elias Pettersson at fifth overall in 2017 and Hughes at seventh overall in 2018.
One not-so-great pick was Olli Juolevi, who was selected fifth overall in 2016. The next two players on the draft board were Olympic gold medallists Matthew Tkachuk and Clayton Keller. Juolevi only appeared in 41 NHL games, and currently plays for Tappara in Finland's Liiga.
There are a few players that the Canucks selected deep in the draft under Brackett's leadership.
In 2019, Vancouver picked Nils Hoglander in the second round, and he has played 331 games in the NHL. In that same draft, they selected goaltender Arturs Silovs in the sixth round. Silovs has had some big moments in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the Canucks and with his current team, the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Another notable player is Jonah Gadjovich, selected in the second round of the 2017 draft. He's not a game-breaker, but he does have two Stanley Cups to his name with the Florida Panthers, and thrives in the role of a pesky fourth-liner. The 27-year-old has featured in 130 NHL regular-season games and 16 playoff contests.
Outside of leading clubs at the draft table, Brackett has also served as a scout for Team USA in the last three World Junior Championships. The Americans have won two of those three competitions.
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