The Toronto Maple Leafs’ 2015 draft haul looks a lot different in hindsight, and one name keeps standing out: Travis Konecny.
Toronto moved down from the 24th pick in that draft and sent the selection to Philadelphia, landing the 29th and 61st picks in return. The Flyers used the original slot on Konecny, while the Leafs came away with defenceman Travis Dermott and forward Jeremy Bracco.
At the time, the deal barely registered next to the buzz around Mitch Marner, who had already gone fourth overall. But the gap between what Toronto gave up and what it got back has only grown with time.
Konecny’s first OHL season with the Ottawa 67’s was a strong one - he led the team with 70 points and 44 assists and finished second in goals with 26. He then followed that with two straight point-per-game seasons, which helped push his stock higher before the draft.
Now with 10 NHL seasons behind him, Konecny is a two-time All-Star, earning the honor in 2020 and 2024. He still hasn’t taken home a major league award, but he has become a core piece in Philadelphia and a true leader on Broad Street.
The Leafs’ return from that trade hasn’t aged nearly as well. Dermott looked like a sensible pick for a rebuilding blue line, but that never really turned into much. In five seasons with Toronto, he never topped 17 points in a year, and that came in his second NHL season.
After being dealt to the Vancouver Canucks in 2022, Dermott’s career kept sliding. He last appeared in the NHL during the 2024-25 season, splitting a small amount of time between the Edmonton Oilers and Minnesota Wild. He also played five games for the Hartford Wolf Pack in the AHL and posted three assists.
Bracco’s path was even tougher. He never played an NHL game for Toronto or any other team. He spent three seasons with the Toronto Marlies and had his best stretch in 2018-19, when he led the club in points with 79 and assists with 57, while ranking third in goals with 22.
Since then, Bracco has bounced around Europe, with stops in Finland, Germany, Russia, Slovakia and Austria. Last season, he split time with Eisbären Regensburg of the DEL2 in Germany and put up 38 points, including 14 goals and 24 assists.
The part that stings for Toronto is how neatly Konecny would have fit into the picture. The Leafs already had Marner in the fold, and adding Konecny would have given them another high-end winger. If the club had still endured the rough 2015-16 season and then landed Auston Matthews first overall in 2016, the idea of a Konecny-Matthews-Marner line becomes impossible to ignore.
That trio would have been a nightmare for opponents, even if the Leafs’ problems on defence and in goal still would have needed fixing. Konecny on the wing with Matthews and Marner would have given Toronto one of the league’s most dangerous top lines, and even now he would bring value by feeding Matthews the puck.
Toronto missed on Konecny, but the organization does have some younger talent on the way in Matthew Knies, Easton Cowan and now Gavin McKenna.
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Matthew Knies Is Starting To Look Like A Massive Leafs Win
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Knies has given the Leafs real value on the ice, too, with a breakout season that showed why the team was comfortable making a long-term bet. As salaries for ascending forwards keep pushing higher, Toronto has to like where it landed with a player who is still trending up and whose deal leaves the club with more flexibility than many of its peers enjoy. [Read more 🡒]