An ex-Leaf describes how Brendan Shanahan was ineffective for the team.

Carlo Colaiacovo, a former defenseman for the Maple Leafs, has criticized Brendan Shanahan for not participating in the defenseman draft.

While recording his podcast “First Up,” Carlo Colaiacovo was highly critical of Brendan Shanahan and the Toronto Maple Leafs organization for their poor performance in selecting more defenseman.

According to Colaiacovo, the organization has given zero attention to restocking their defensive prospect pool in favor of concentrating too much on developing an offensive powerhouse.

According to Colaiacovo, the Leafs have not given any thought to developing and drafting a defenseman since they selected Morgan Reilly, and that was before his arrival. Because they lack a player who can stop their opponent’s top scorers, Colaiacovo thinks this is a major factor in the Leafs’ inability to contend in the postseason and go far.

The Leafs have drafted defenseman in the past, including Justin Holl, Rasmus Sandin, and Timothy Liljegren, but Colaiacovo thinks those players aren’t the solution and won’t ever become the “stud” that Reilly became.

The Leafs selected Morgan Reilly fifth overall in the 2012 draft. Since then, he has played in 791 games for the organization, contributing a magnificent 392 assists in addition to 80 goals.

Colaiacovo is quite dissatisfied that Shanahan and the other players in the position have had tunnel vision and are solely concerned with choosing forwards, as they did with their current “core four.”

According to Colaiacovo, the Leafs are constantly looking to trade for players in the defenseman position as a result of their recent struggles to draft defensemen. He claims this is detrimental to the team because it forces them to make some terrible trades when they should have been concentrating on drafting and developing their own defensemen internally.

Colaiacovo was selected by the Maple Leafs in the first round of the 2001 NBA Draft. He went on to have a successful career, playing for the Leafs in the mid-2000s alongside players like Mats Sundin. Colaiacovo had 157 points in 470 games during his NHL career.