Thank you once again to Leafs Nation, the Minnesota Wild, the people of Minnesota, and also to the Boston Bruins for winning the Stanley Cup.  Without further ado, with the 30th overall draft pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, the Toronto Maple Leafs select, a soulful defenseman from the Youngstown Phantoms of the USHL, Scott Mayfield.

While the Maple Leafs are certainly a Stanley Cup contending team, we certainly need to make sure that Toronto has a Stanley Cup contending team for years to come.  Scott Mayfield can certainly help in that role, and we certainly think that he could be the Chris Pronger of the next generation.

But, it was a long road to make our decision to draft Curtis Mayfield... I mean Scott Mayfield.  We searched every neighborhood ice rink in Minnesota looking for Coach Gordon Bombay's input on who to draft with our second 1st round draft choice.  We didn't find him, but we somehow found Charlie Sheen.  He suggested that we choose someone with tiger blood and the DNA of Adonis.  Instead, we decided to draft someone with soul, someone with size, someone with smarts and someone with snarl.  That someone is Scott Mayfield.

While he may not be "Superfly", Scott Mayfield is a monster of a defenseman, both in his height and his hockey sense.  Mayfield has quite the edge, which has caused him to see quite a bit of time in the penalty box.  Mayfield is still developing as a solid two-way defenseman, tends to see a lot of time on ice, is becoming quite the passer and is able to his tall frame to become dangerous on the ice.  He is also quite a humble hockey player, and is committed to playing at the University of Denver for the 2011-12 season.  I think he will "Keep On Keeping On" to a solid career as a solid hockey player.

Here's some video clips and related links for Scott Mayfield...

Curtis Mayfield - Superfly (via FunkSoBrudda)

Oops.  I meant SCOTT Mayfield, really.

USHL Radio - Scott Mayfield interview (via USHLinteractive)

Stars vs. Phantoms hockey fight 10-16-09 (via hot4hockey)

 USHL Defenseman Mayfield Making Moves - http://www.ushl.com/news/story.cfm?id=3488

Scott Mayfield Profile - http://www.mynhldraft.com/2011/NHL-Draft-Profiles/Scott-Mayfield

Thanks to Pension Plan Puppets and Blue Chip Prospects for providing some insight on who to select.