Unless the Toronto Maple Leafs attempt to trade up in the NHL Draft, their first selection pegged on their draft board will be at 64th, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Toronto is entering a new era of drafting with Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving hand-picking director of amateur scouting Mark Leach. The 63-year-old's background in scouting is vast, with almost 30 years as an amateur scout in the NHL markets like Detroit and Dallas.

Like every year, Leach enters his team's war room on draft day one with extensive knowledge of the top prospects. However, he, his staff, and the rest of the Maple Leafs organization surely know whether they'll move up into the first round, or maybe even shift down, currently with six picks.

"One thing about it is you just have to be prepared for anything. At this point, picking 64, it kind of takes care of itself, so we'll sit there, and as Tre said, does he move up or move down, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Leach said on Thursday.

"But we're just getting prepared for whatever might happen. Does he make a trade or whatever? We're just prepared. We go along as it's a draft where maybe we have a first-round pick type of thing. We have to be prepared for all sorts of things that might happen."

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Toronto has to get this draft right. Without many picks since 2020, the organization—although they had eight picks last year—hasn't had much success acquiring a prospect with much NHL upside, aside from Matthew Knies in 2021.

You could add Easton Cowan to the mix, however, he has not played NHL games yet. The same goes for Fraser Minten, whom they traded to Boston in March in the Brandon Carlo deal. Maybe Ben Danford evolves into Toronto's first true homegrown defenseman since Morgan Rielly.

"Ben's a real good player. He's got a good skill set. He's getting stronger every day. He had a really good playoff run. I think he's just a young man who needs time and maturity to play at the pro game," Leach said.

"It's hard. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. So I think he could take a year, two, three, to see how he does."

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 Development takes time, and those they might select this year might not be ready for several years. But the Maple Leafs must set themselves up for the future, especially with their core players getting older. So, when it comes to the 64th pick and beyond, what is Toronto looking for?

"The best available talent and guy who competes and works hard," Leach said.

"It's just really what falls. At that point in the draft, there are kids who have, I will call, just little issues in their game. If they weren't, they're in the top 10. But they all have some talent, some elite level that helps them out that we'll try and pick up and get to."

In a perfect world, I think the Maple Leafs would like to draft a right winger, or, more likely, a large, mean defenseman who could dominate down the road in the playoffs. Luckily for Toronto, a few could fall to them at 64th overall.

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6-foot-6, 234-pound right-shot defenseman Carter Amico could be a fit. The Boston University commit perfectly matches the mould of a Treliving-type defender and could be an effective player for Toronto, especially on the right side, in the future. He missed a lot of time last season with a knee injury, which hurt his draft stock.

Toronto-born defenseman David Bedkowski, who spent most of last season with the OHL's Owen Sound Attack, also fits the bill. Bedkowski is another large and very mean defender, standing at 6-foot-5 and weighing 214 pounds, not afraid to join the rush throughout games.

"Look at the playoffs. Florida has a big team, you have two months of grind. I think that size is a factor, but also if the kid has a big heart and a big compete level, that can do something," each said.

"But I do like size, no question about it."

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Other large defenders projected to be mid-to-late second-round picks (via The Hockey News' prospect guru Tony Ferrari's Top-80 list) include 6-foot-5 Sean Barnhill of the USHL's Dubuque Fighting Saints, 6-foot-6 Haoxi Wang of the OHL's Oshawa Generals, and maybe towering 6-foot-7 forward Rio Kaiser of the OHL's Peterborough Petes, if Toronto elects to trade down further.

"As far as moving up at 64," Treliving said, "we'll see. I think Mark (Leach) will speak to it a little bit, but some of the guys are well-positioned here. Looking at the move down scenarios potentially more than move up. But you just see how it all unfolds."

It's possible, too, that the Maple Leafs go off the board when it comes to drafting their first pick. It's happened all too many times before, and I wouldn't be surprised if Toronto's new regime does the same. Maybe it's a forward, or perhaps it's a defenseman they select first.

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Whoever the player is, though, they'll be the top player in the Maple Leafs' eyes at that point in the draft.

"Personally, you take the best available player talent-wise at that pick (64th overall). When you get down to 64 in that area, these players take a little longer to develop maybe, but a little bit more of not a straight line to get where they're going to go from A to B," Leach said.

"So you just be patient with them and patient in their development, so they end up in a few years. These kids are all, most of them, are three to five years away. Obviously, we've all seen in the past that the top picks in the draft, they have the best chance. But after that, it's a process."

(Top photo of Treliving: Dan Hamilton / Imagn Images)