Fifteen years ago, the London Knights owned the fourth pick of the Ontario Hockey League draft.

Mark and Dale Hunter, who just bought the team, hoped against hope forward Rick Nash of the Toronto Marlboros bantams would still be available.

So it was a rather tense moment in Mississauga that day when Owen Sound right ahead of them at No. 3, announced they would take, “from the Toronto Marlboros bantams, Ric- . . .”

The then-Platers selected defenceman Richard Power, Nash’s teammate.

The Knights got their cornerstone player. London hasn’t missed the playoffs since. They won a famous Memorial Cup in 2005 and have been to three others while becoming the world leaders in producing NHL star power.

Alumnus Brendan Shanahan, now the Maple Leafs president, hired Mark Hunter last fall to do in the NHL what he has in the junior game the last decade-and-a-half.

Toronto owns the fourth pick in the 2015 draft. They’re hoping against hope for their Nash moment.

On Friday in Sunrise, Fla., it’s go time.

“One thing I know in this business — time tells everything,” Hunter said. “I feel confident we’ve done our work, but you never know what’s going to happen in a draft. Someone else could take somebody right ahead of you that you like, so there’s a lot of intangibles with this job.

“But this is a winning business and we’re here to try to turn this around. No, we’ve got to go show it.”

It’s been rather hilarious to hear the 52-year-old Hunter, in the last nine months, referred to as an “NHL rookie” with an experience base largely “limited to the OHL”.

Every big league GM understands what this hire did for Toronto. He is one of the best personnel men in the game.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time now,” the Petrolia native said. “I’m not just going in where I haven’t been involved with watching kids from a young age grow from year-to-year. I’ve seen a lot of them come and go and you can’t replace that experience. Hopefully, that will come into use where we don’t miss anybody we should get along the way.”

The biggest difference between scouting the juniors and the pros? The older teens are more developed, so projection should be less of a crapshoot.

Hunter's job is to predict which ones will do the work and go to the gym to improve their game.

"If you look at (former first overall pick) Johnny Tavares, that's a real good example," Hunter said. "When he played for us in London (in 2009), he had some issues -- not big ones -- with his skating. If he would've stayed the same skater, he wouldn't be the superstar he is right now."

That's where a scouting staff's ability to network and dig comes into play. Talent is relatively easy to identify. It's everything else -- character, drive, family and even stuff like reaction to fame and ability to adapt to a travel-based lifestyle -- that makes the difference.

"It takes a lot to be a professional athlete anymore," Hunter said. "It's so competitive out there and there's so much top-end money people can make. There's stardom. It's the ones who do the work consistently, eat properly, live properly that will get better."

If they don't, Hunter expects his area scouts to find those red flags.

"If there is one, word usually does get around," he said. "We depend on them to find (character). The players we draft, most, we've seen 6-10 times and talked to them personally. Some, you can see less, but you still go to see if you can find something wrong.

"The process is the same as junior. You have your list. It's just more professionally done."

Hunter will be faced with one of his hardest decisions right off the bat. He and Leafs scout Lindsay Hofford have to separate their heart and head when it comes to Knights forward Mitch Marner, who could be available at No. 4.

"You have to be objective and do what's right for that pick," Hunter said. "We do know him better than the other kids, but we're going to do what's best for the organization."

That, after all the scouting reports and numbers and video, may be a gut decision.

"To me, that means "Will a player get to that other level?" " Hunter said. "One time for us, it was Corey Perry in London. He was so driven, you could put him to that other level and a lot of people didn't know that.

“We called him ‘Bambi’ on the ice because he was always falling down and getting back up. He looked like a bag of bones and he was weak.

“But he wanted it so much, that’s why he’s a star in this league.”

Hunter, as a player, was an NHL first-round pick for Montreal, scored 44 goals in one season 30 years ago with St. Louis and won a Stanley Cup as a Calgary Flame.

But now, the Leafs need him to be one of NHL’s best at making player decisions — and in short order too, like starting Friday.

He must weigh the input of established hockey men and number crunchers, embracing the analytics wave in his own particular way. “Do we listen to everything (assistant GM Kyle Dubas’ division) wants? No,” he said, “but do we listen to them? Yes, we do, because they’re part of the scouting staff.”

This is not the same as owning a powerhouse team with your brother in London. There are more people in charge in Toronto, a cacophony of voices in play and more at stake in one of hockey’s biggest markets and most challenging situations.

“This is an opportunity to be involved with the Maple Leafs, a historical team to me,” he said. “It was something I couldn’t refuse and it’s an honour to be part of this organization. This has been fun, I’ve enjoyed this work and draft day — OHL or NHL — is a big day for any club.

“Anyone who says it’s not, they’re not telling the truth.”

You can hit the jackpot or miss the boat entirely.

A lot of people in the game will be shocked if Mark Hunter ends up all wet.

ryan.pyette@sunmedia.ca

Twitter.com/RyanatLFPress