You guys need to teach me why Leafs hockey sucks.
Excuse grammar/spelling don't have time to edit.
Okay:
Well, lets not go too far back, but we'll start with the JFJ years.
After the lockout and subsequent implementation of the salary cap, the Leafs were in trouble. Why? Well the team has always been reliant on the ability to sign whoever they wanted simply because they could pay more for players. After the salary cap, the drafting and developing side of the process has become the most important part of any organization, and the Leafs failed to identify this early. JFJ, our GM during this time, proceeded to trade away the Leaf's draft picks and prospects to find players that could help the teams aging core compete (which they failed to do) case in point, Tukka Rask was traded to Boston for Andrew Raycroft. So up until around 2007-2008 the Leafs kept trying to do this, they never made the playoffs and the prospect pool was empty and finally JFJ was booted. An interm GM was hired, who proceeded to trade more young players for "veterans" (Steen for Stempniak) before he was replaced by Brian Burke.
Recap before the "rebuild"
- Fail to make playoffs
- Bottom 5 prospect pool, if not last ranked.
- No #1C, #1D, #1G
The Burke era!
Well it has been pretty much accepted as fact that ownership would not let Burke do a proper rebuild, they wanted an accelerated process. So Burke had to find quick ways to address the teams issues. This involved trading away two first round picks and a second for Phil Kessel (turned into Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton, Seguin put up more points then Kessel last year and Hamilton is one of the most highly touted young defenceman in the league, yay). Burke began improving the team from a drafting perspective, there were a few years where we kept our first round picks (Kadri, Rielly) or acquired some (Biggs, Percy) and our prospect pool is improved, but still ranked bottom of the league. Overall, his accelerated process did not produce results on the ice, playoffs were never made and he was kicked out and replaced by Dave Nonis.
Dave Nonis Era!
So Dave is a long-term colleague of Burke, and was his assistant during his team as GM for the Leafs. His era started off strong by making the playoffs, but him and his team of stupid as shit assistant GMs thought this meant they were a piece or two away from being real competitors. So they doubled-down on stupid and dismantled one of the Leaf's best lines in Grabovski, Kulemen, MacArthur and proceeded to sign and trade for scrubs like Clarkson and Bolland. This team then put up the worst defensive performance by any team in the last decade, the mishandled young players like Jake Gardiner and refused to listen to the analytics that predicted their eventual collapse.
Shanahan Era!
So after that collapse, and the collapse in the Boston playoff series, I guess ownership had enough, and they brought in Shanahan. Shanahan proceeded to fire the assistant coaches, and GM's, hired young 28 year old Kyle Dubas as assistant GM, brought in an analytics department and I guess is trying to make the org more receptive to new ideas. The team is still employing Randy Carlyle, who has really done badly as the coach, continues to play players like Tyler Bozak against competition they simply cannot compete against, mistreats young players like Gardiner who deserve ice team, and well just doesn't seem to be getting through to the team. He really should be getting fired soon.
Where do the Leafs stand now?
Lets recap:
- Still missed the playoffs last year, put up a similar performance to pre-Burke era teams.
- Still has a bottom 5 prospect pool.
- Failed to acquire a #1C and #1D throughout this 6 year rebuild, which are arguably the most important positions on the team.
Any questions?
