The year was 1989 and the Toronto Maple Leafs had three picks in the first round of the NHL amateur entry draft. They selected all three players from an OHL street about 2 hours east of Toronto, the Belleville Bulls. Aside from all the jokes about only having a "limited" travel budget for their scouts, the Leafs were obviously big fans of Scot Thornton, Rob Pearson and Steve Bancroft. Thornton has had a good NHL career, Pearson had a few productive years but Bancroft has gotten lost in the subsequent years.
Steve Bancroft was a big defenseman who played three years of OHL hockey with the Bulls. He then went on to play with various teams in the AHL and IHL. He would never play a game with the Maple Leafs, eventually landing in the NHL for a single game stint with the Chicago Blackhawks in 1991-92. His journey from there took him through numerous hockey organizations playing in the AHL and IHL. He got another shot at the NHL in 2001-02 with the San Jose Sharks, playing 5 games and tallying up 1 assist. After that he went back to the AHL, playing the 2003-04 season with Ottawa's minor league affiliate, the Binghamton Senators.
Posted by hplayerz
at 10:48 AM EDT
Updated: Saturday, 10 July 2004 11:28 AM EDT