As another disappointing season ends for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and with their Stanley Cup drought now at 41 years and counting, interim general manager Cliff Fletcher claims that part of the club’s rebuilding plan will be to bolster its prospect depth.
It remains to be seen if the Leafs will actually follow through with that plan. This is a team that, under the previous CBA, preferred to spend its way out of trouble, often at the expense of its youth.
With the Leafs going into this summer’s UFA market with potentially $14 million in available cap space, potentially more if Pavel Kubina is traded and Andrew Raycroft bought out, the temptation to splurge on free agent talent could be too strong to overcome.
The Leafs get kicked around for not drafting well, particularly over the last ten years, but they have been capable of selecting some decent talent.
All-star defenseman Tomas Kaberle was selected 204th in the 1996 draft, hulking forward Nik Antropov went tenth overall in 1998 and two-time 20-goal scorer Alexei Ponikarovsky went 87th overall the same year. Brad Boyes went 24th overall in the 2000 entry draft but was dealt away in the ill-fated Owen Nolan deal. Alex Steen and Matt Stajan were both 2002 draft picks
The problem unfortunately is that the Leafs haven’t been able to draft well consistently over the last ten years.
Some of their current kids, like Jiri Tlusty and Anton Stralman, have shown some promise, and prospect goalie Justin Pogge has played well on their farm club this season. That bodes well for the team’s rebuilding process, but they’ll have to devote more time and attention to not only drafting well but developing their young talent well.
The Leafs could learn from the example set by their long-time rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, which has rebuilt itself into a powerhouse this season in the Eastern Conference primarily through drafting and development.
Sixteen members of the Canadiens current roster were drafted and developed by the team. Of those, Andrei Markov and Michael Ryder (1998), Mike Komisarek and Tomas Plekanec (2001), Chris Higgins (2002), Andrei Kostitsyn, Maxim Lapierre, Ryan O’Byrne and Jaroslav Halak (2003), Mikhail Grabovsky and Mark Streit (2004), and Carey Price, Guillaume Latendresse and Sergei Kostitsyn (2005) were all selected within the last ten years.
Other prospects seen as potential Habs include Kyle Chipchura (who played 36 games this season with the Canadiens) and Alexei Yemelin (2004), David Fischer and Ben Maxwell (2006) and Ryan McDonagh, P.K. Subban and Max Pacioretty (2007).
Little wonder the Canadiens prospects have the club regularly ranked among the top five NHL teams in that regard in recent years, and certainly accounts for the Habs stunning rise to prominence this season. That talent pool could keep the Canadiens among the league’s top teams for several years, possibly even putting them into Stanley Cup contention during that time.
Of course there are other means of rebuilding a club, via trades and free agency, but in a salary cap world drafting, developing and retaining young talent appears to be as valuable a building block as ever.one the Leafs ignore at their peril as they embark on a long-overdue rebuilding program.
As much as I like talking about the Leafs I am wondering whether building through youth can be accomplished by every team in the league. It's the current fashion to hang on to draft picks and build your team that way but I don't see how every team can be succesful this way. Detroit seems to do well with the draft simply because they have been able to select players that everyone else overlooked. Toronto has drafted reasonably well and then traded away a few fine youngsters (Boyes, Rask, Bell) who could have been great addtions. Also, how bad can their drafting be when the Marlies are currently one of the top teams in the AHL?
Well, not all teams are trying to build through youth at the same time. Some teams are already "built" and are willing to trade prospects/draft picks hoping to push them over the top. Then there are teams like Atlanta last year, willing to sell the farm so they can be swept in the first round.
Also, if you are going to build through youth, you have to be willing to (probably) be bad for a couple/three years, which gives you some good picks.
So no, not every team can build through youth at the same time, but not all are trying to build, and some will of course totally screw it up.
I'm convinced that 1/2 of the general managers in the NHL don't know how to build toward the future with the salary cap in place. Before teams lacking quality scouts could just buy their way to victory like Toronto and NYR did every year. The rangers are still getting away with buying free agents, but it's now very obvious that Toronto is screwed and needs to change.
When I look at how long the Panthers and Jackets have been in the NHL and what they've done it makes me laugh. I know I can't gloat, since I'm an Oilers fan... but at least you can see a lot of guys coming up in Edmonton's system.
What's up with Gilbert Brule? In Vancouver he was the king. Played the game fearlessly and lit the lamp up allll the time.
As for Toronto... how can they possibly be a better team next year? Who wants to take on Kubina's contract? And if they don't resign Sundin for 5 mill(if he's nice enough to play for that cheap) a season who is going to put up all the points for the Leafs?
The UFA market is looking pretty bare this year and there's no way Fletcher is going to go out and steal a quality RFA in exchange for first round draft picks.
The best thing the Leafs can do is pray that Sundin retires after this year, so that they're a worse team, so that they get better draft picks. A few years down the road some of the guys with the bigger contracts will either have finished their contracts, or the money they'll be making won't have nearly as great of an impact on the cap.
Is there possibly any other way the Leafs can turn things around? Heh they could always kidnap Detroit's scouts.
Makes me wonder what all those braniac sportswriters were thinking when they predicted that Toronto would finish ahead of the Habs! I remember clearly saying that we (Canadiens) would make the playoffs, that despite the flu-bug and Carbo's inexperience, Aebischer's poor play, Kovalev's dismal season (WOW what a difference), we still missed the playoffs by one point last year. I said this team would be much better and I was right.
Toronto did not make any significant moves, other than getting Toskala from San Jose and the T.O. media frenzy was quick to give them the Cup.
As far as drafting goes all the credit in MTL should go to Trevor Timmins and his staff. He's Gainey's ace in the hole. While Toronto drafted poorly and traded away some if not most of the few good picks they made.
Last edited by Cup_Junkie on April 6th at 7:29 PM.
Spec, you should do a column on the Canes and what directions they should explore. Having them barely miss the post-season twice after a Cup has been disheartening to say the least. I thought they had made the necessary adjustments with the Ottawa trade, but results are the same. Is it coaching? Is Ward not the goalie they need? Why cant they get a decent backup? What should they do about defense?
1) It'll be easier said than done in Toronto. Its difficult to bring in 'youth' if guys with no trade contracts are making millions. You can't buy everyone out
2) You also have to have the youth to play those roles. Doe the Leafs have a strong farm system? They were ranked 19th by "Hockey's Future" organizational rankings
3) Also, like NY, will the folks in TO put up with a 'rebuild"?
4) Its safe to fianlly publish your Review of your season preview. ; )
Toronto's going to be an interesting team to watch regarding how they handle this little rebuilding dilemma. They could go down as a textbook case, but the future is hard to read. Either they continue floundering and go down as the most mismanaged team of the decade, or they turn things around and get the gimp award for most improved club.
Side note: If we looked at the past 10 years, 1997-1998 to present, who looks like the most improved club?
Side note number two: As a Hartford native, I giggled a little when the Hurricanes were eliminated. The neighbors were most displeased.
Here's a quick snapshot of ten-year-improvement based on the following recap of who made and who missed the playoffs in 1997-98:
Eastern Conference:
Playoffs: NJD, PHI, PIT, WAS, BOS, BUF, MTL, OTT
Missed: CAR, NYI, NYR, FLA, TBL
Western Conference:
Playoffs: DAL, DET, STL, COL, LAK, PHO, EDM, SJS
Missed: CHI, CGY, TOR, ANA, VAN
The quick assessment for a decade later in 2007-08:
1. In the East, CAR, FLA, NYI, TBL and TOR remain or returned to being non-playoff clubs (although CAR and TBL have both won Cups in the interim). BUF and ATL have sunk into the quicksand. Only the NYR have climbed out of the swamp.
2. In the West, CHI and VAN remain or returned to being non-playoff clubs. CBJ, EDM, LAK, PHO and STL have sunk into the quicksand. ANA and CGY have climbed out of the swamp (with a Cup victory and a Finals appearance, respectively). MIN and NSH rose to respectability quickly.
Interesting to note that 7 of the 8 playoff teams in the East were there a decade ago (NYR swapping with BUF) while only 4 of the 8 playoff teams in the West echoing a decade later (ANA, CGY and newbees MIN and NSH -- who weren't in the league a decade ago -- replacing STL, PHO, EDM and SJS).
Last edited by Matt_McCallum on April 23rd at 3:48 PM.
I'm Lyle Richardson, also known as Spector, Foxsports.com 's "Prince of Pucks".,which is based on the fact I live in Prince Edward Island, Canada and I couldn't think of a better byline. I've been an NHL hockey commentator since 1998 on my website, Spector's Hockey, and I'm a contributing writer for Foxsports.com , The Hockey News and Eishockey News. I'm also a regular on The Faceoff Hockey Show and a frequent guest on "The Late Crew" on The Team 1200 Ottawa.
