Rebuild You Say....
Posted 6:03 PM ET | Comments 0
Full Rebuild you say...... You’ll have to forgive this long suffering fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs for being just a little bit skeptical as this is unknown territory we are possibly entering. I have been around to hear terms like “retool”, “rebuild on the fly” among other things that have achieved little to no results over the years so the idea of the MLSE board of directors allowing management to finally break up the band completely and start from scratch is welcome and refreshing news to say the least.... If it happens that is.
This past week, The Globe And Mail reported that Brendan Shanahan had approached the board of directors and was given permission to go ahead with a full top to bottom rebuild as the team approaches the March 2nd trade deadline and the end of another disappointing season which will see them miss the playoffs yet again. In the past, the notion of stripping the team down to the bare bones and acknowledging that they were going to be a bottom feeder for the years it would take to trade for and draft young kids and allow them to develop into capable NHL players was an absolute no go, yet here we are....Maybe. Kudos to Shanahan for convincing the board that this needs to be done and getting permission to do so, but the questions is whether or not they will be allowed to see it through from start to finish.
Since the 2004/2005 season which didn’t happen due to the NHL lockout the Maple Leafs have had five coaches and three general managers which have guided the team to a total of one playoff appearance which ended in a first round game seven collapse for the ages. During this time there has been retooling, tinkering, rebuilding on the fly ect ect and the results speak for themselves. Narrow playoff misses and the one failed playoff round that they have played since the 04/05 season have seen them miss out on players such as John Tavares, Taylor Hall, Tyler Seguin, Steven Stamkos just to name a few. The whole being bad but not bad enough with the intention of being good needs to stop as any single or combination of multiple players mentioned above would have looked good in blue and white and would have been solid building blocks to surround with other young pieces in the building of a stable consistent winner. Instead all of these players are playing in other cities where that process has already taken place or is currently in the works.
The process of said rebuild has begun with the trading of potential Unrestricted Free Agents Cody Franson and Mike Santorelli for a first round pick, mid to high level prospect Brendan Leipsic and Olli Jokinen with the likes of Daniel Winnik, Dave Booth and the recently acquired Jokinen being good bets to be out the door prior to the March 2nd deadline. These are all no brainer easy trades to make. The question is, will they trade the big pieces, will ownership be able to swallow the idea of trading the likes of Phil Kessel and/or captain Dion Phaneuf and getting draft picks and prospects back in return rather than other older accomplished players? If not and this is just an empty promise then we can expect years of mediocrity to continue to pass this team by, but if so and ownership/management stays the course, then while the hardships and growing pains that are inevitable over the next three to five years will be tough to watch at times, they will be quickly forgotten if they are followed up with perennial all-star caliber players, long playoff runs and maybe.... just maybe an end to the Stanley Cup drought that has been going on since 1967.
This past week, The Globe And Mail reported that Brendan Shanahan had approached the board of directors and was given permission to go ahead with a full top to bottom rebuild as the team approaches the March 2nd trade deadline and the end of another disappointing season which will see them miss the playoffs yet again. In the past, the notion of stripping the team down to the bare bones and acknowledging that they were going to be a bottom feeder for the years it would take to trade for and draft young kids and allow them to develop into capable NHL players was an absolute no go, yet here we are....Maybe. Kudos to Shanahan for convincing the board that this needs to be done and getting permission to do so, but the questions is whether or not they will be allowed to see it through from start to finish.
Since the 2004/2005 season which didn’t happen due to the NHL lockout the Maple Leafs have had five coaches and three general managers which have guided the team to a total of one playoff appearance which ended in a first round game seven collapse for the ages. During this time there has been retooling, tinkering, rebuilding on the fly ect ect and the results speak for themselves. Narrow playoff misses and the one failed playoff round that they have played since the 04/05 season have seen them miss out on players such as John Tavares, Taylor Hall, Tyler Seguin, Steven Stamkos just to name a few. The whole being bad but not bad enough with the intention of being good needs to stop as any single or combination of multiple players mentioned above would have looked good in blue and white and would have been solid building blocks to surround with other young pieces in the building of a stable consistent winner. Instead all of these players are playing in other cities where that process has already taken place or is currently in the works.
The process of said rebuild has begun with the trading of potential Unrestricted Free Agents Cody Franson and Mike Santorelli for a first round pick, mid to high level prospect Brendan Leipsic and Olli Jokinen with the likes of Daniel Winnik, Dave Booth and the recently acquired Jokinen being good bets to be out the door prior to the March 2nd deadline. These are all no brainer easy trades to make. The question is, will they trade the big pieces, will ownership be able to swallow the idea of trading the likes of Phil Kessel and/or captain Dion Phaneuf and getting draft picks and prospects back in return rather than other older accomplished players? If not and this is just an empty promise then we can expect years of mediocrity to continue to pass this team by, but if so and ownership/management stays the course, then while the hardships and growing pains that are inevitable over the next three to five years will be tough to watch at times, they will be quickly forgotten if they are followed up with perennial all-star caliber players, long playoff runs and maybe.... just maybe an end to the Stanley Cup drought that has been going on since 1967.