I'll take this one.

Pretty sure there's a hockey card shop down the street from Ek called "The NHL Office". He probably went in there and the guy was like "I've got too many Vancouver players in my deck here" and Ek's all like "Whoa that's crazy, I've got too many NYI players in MY deck! But what to do about this..."

And that folks is how a rumor was born on this day.
- mgriffen

:every bit as plausible as anything that's ek has ever stated or implied. Potentially even more so

Well done sir

Instability as far as the number of goalies used over the last 5 years, not the current level of play.

We suffered through Raycroft, Toskala, Gustavsson, Giguere, Reimer and Bernier so you'll forgive leaf fans for thinking that getting Andersen is like that day the cable company forgot to scramble the porn.
- Dirty_Irbe_Pads

Big difference being that the likes of Lou, Schneider, Miller and Markstrom are actually good, unlike that list of both past and present garbage.

Ah, right. The retool. Enjoy 10 years of mediocrity.
- Tumbleweed

You are such a chump Tumbleweed

They didn't have enough character.

Character >>>>> Skill
- classic321

You really are a classic

:every bit as plausible as anything that's ek has ever stated or implied. Potentially even more so

Well done sir
- HB77

much obliged my good man

You are such a chump Tumbleweed
- CanuckDon

Aww muffin, did I hurt your feelings?

BB and OJ are far from wins. Prospects, good ones, but unknown and may bust out. Konecy and tkachuk are clear wins, picked one pick after those guys.

Sutter, grandlund, sven, gud are the core of a mediocre team. Nothing more.
- Tumbleweed

You guys are one Anderson injury away for doing your annual analysis of top 10 prospect profiles. Perhaps even longer if Reilly is out and Corrado is forced playing top 4 minutes.

But yah, we'll take 10 years of mediocrity, rather than a solid 5 years of fans throwing jerseys on the ice. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

Aww muffin, did I hurt your feelings?
- Tumbleweed

Nope. Never been better

Ah, right. The retool. Enjoy 10 years of mediocrity.
- Tumbleweed

oh man, you'd think losing for a living would have made Leaf's fans humble by now


Read in other rumour sites that JB wants to trade a dman for a forward, I dont know the Islanders well (never home early enough for eastern games) but I really hope we dont trade for Strome, little tired of "project" players. though a smaller trade for someone like Beauvillier would be very interesting

Difference being is we traded down and have 3 prospects in bracco, dermott and dzirarikaarls.

So, our risk is higher, but we still have the potential to have as many as 3 nhl players out of that. Though i wouldn't be surprised if we only dermott makes it.
- Tumbleweed

Exactly

I'm not a fan of Benning not taking the BPA in the first round but Boeser is decent late round pick and would go 7 or 8 spots higher in a redraft.

But to fault vancouver for not taking konecny is stupid considering you passed on him as well. and so did 22 other teams.

You guys are one Anderson injury away for doing your annual analysis of top 10 prospect profiles. Perhaps even longer if Reilly is out and Corrado is forced playing top 4 minutes.

But yah, we'll take 10 years of mediocrity, rather than a solid 5 years of fans throwing jerseys on the ice. There's more than one way to skin a cat.
- Rocket_Launcher

Agreed. If you guys drafted tkakuck, pastrnak, ehlers and koency instead of OJ, mccann, virtanen and boeser, I would say you guys are in for a quick re-tool.

But with all those missed opportunities, a failed FA signing in Eriksson and trades that haven’t yielded much, I’d say you’re in for a long-road ahead of you.

Exactly

I'm not a fan of Benning not taking the BPA in the first round but Boeser is decent late round pick and would go 7 or 8 spots higher in a redraft.

But to fault vancouver for not taking konecny is stupid considering you passed on him as well. and so did 22 other teams.
- classic321

4 out of 4 first round picks benning has whiffed and past on a NHL player taken basically after the guy he picked.

so koency on his own isn't a big deal. but the overall trend has at a minimum set you guys back years.

4 out of 4 first round picks benning has whiffed and past on a NHL player taken basically after the guy he picked.

so koency on his own isn't a big deal. but the overall trend has at a minimum set you guys back years.
- Tumbleweed

its not like we went down a round on every player (like boston), we vary from a couple of spots, so obviously our scouts had them ranked differently (like how they had Juolevi/dubois higher on thier own lists over Tkachuk). Dont forget everyone was giving edmonton a hard time for moving down and grabbing Draisaitl at #4 (they knew what they saw). Until these kids either make the NHL or dont, this is all a moot point.

Exactly

I'm not a fan of Benning not taking the BPA in the first round but Boeser is decent late round pick and would go 7 or 8 spots higher in a redraft.

But to fault vancouver for not taking konecny is stupid considering you passed on him as well. and so did 22 other teams.
- classic321

Yeah there's a quote about hindsight somewhere I heard...can't quite remember it. But hey, we selected Tlusty over Giroux and Schenn over Karlson...and everyone skipped Benn like what, 5 times each? Mistakes have been made and they'll be made again.

Agreed. If you guys drafted tkakuck, pastrnak, ehlers and koency instead of OJ, mccann, virtanen and boeser, I would say you guys are in for a quick re-tool.

But with all those missed opportunities, a failed FA signing in Eriksson and trades that haven’t yielded much, I’d say you’re in for a long-road ahead of you.
- Tumbleweed

Sure. If you guys didn't draft up to get Tyler Biggs and kept your picks for Rackel and Gibson, you guys would have been fine. Then again, you would probably have missed out on Matthews. Hindsight is a beautiful thing.

Sure. If you guys didn't draft up to get Tyler Biggs and kept your picks for Rackel and Gibson, you guys would have been fine. Then again, you would probably have missed out on Matthews. Hindsight is a beautiful thing.
- Rocket_Launcher

and that was a big (frank) up and why we have new management.

Yeah there's a quote about hindsight somewhere I heard...can't quite remember it. But hey, we selected Tlusty over Giroux and Schenn over Karlson...and everyone skipped Benn like what, 5 times each? Mistakes have been made and they'll be made again.
- mgriffen

Agreed. As one off, who cares.

But when there’s a clear and consistent trend over 3 years and 4 1st picks, there is a problem.

And we’re not talking about reaches. In 3 out of 4 picks, we’re talking about the guy picked with the very next pick.

And he missed on a #7 overall. Drafted a guy that can’t put up points in the AHL. That’s a pick you need to hit.

hindsight is 20/20. We can probably all move on from who we "could" have picked. Every team could have had Benn before he was picked in round 5, its a pretty crappy argument

hindsight is 20/20. We can probably all move on from who we "could" have picked. Every team could have had Benn before he was picked in round 5, its a pretty crappy argument
- Codes1087

What's a crappy argument is expecting a quick retool.

It relies completely on dumb luck of finding a benn in the 5th round and such. Complete roll of the dice.

and how else do you judge drafting? Strictly foresight?

What's a crappy argument is expecting a quick retool.

It relies completely on dumb luck of finding a benn in the 5th round and such. Complete roll of the dice.

and how else do you judge drafting? Strictly foresight?
- Tumbleweed

what is a crappy argument is there is only one way to turn a club around.

how many clubs can tank and win the draft lottery each year?

sure you can see a club is headed in the right direction, but until they reach their desired destination, what have they really accomplished?

btw, I think the Leafs are headed in the right direction, but the job isn't done yet.

What's a crappy argument is expecting a quick retool.

It relies completely on dumb luck of finding a benn in the 5th round and such. Complete roll of the dice.

and how else do you judge drafting? Strictly foresight?
- Tumbleweed

San Jose made the SCF last season in the west so your arguements are so stupid. Remember when ppl were giving them poop for not rebuilding? and actually drafting smart, and developing smart..... might be hard for a leafs fans to comprehend

What's a crappy argument is expecting a quick retool.

It relies completely on dumb luck of finding a benn in the 5th round and such. Complete roll of the dice.

and how else do you judge drafting? Strictly foresight?
- Tumbleweed

I am not saying you can't judge drafting. Would we take Pastrnak over McCann? Absolutey. Would we have taken Ehlers over Virtanen? absolutely. Tkachuk over Juolevi, it certainly looks like we missed a good one but its not fair to comment until Juolevi has a year in the league. Either way, we could sit here all day and spit fire about who each team COULD have had, but it's a never ending circle.

what is a crappy argument is there is only one way to turn a club around.

how many clubs can tank and win the draft lottery each year?

sure you can see a club is headed in the right direction, but until they reach their desired destination, what have they really accomplished?

btw, I think the Leafs are headed in the right direction, but the job isn't done yet.
- hillbillydeluxe

agreed. there is more than one way.

But you need to do something right. When you trade for meh players, sign bad players and don’t draft the best players available, then why exactly do you think benning is doing something that will work?

I am not saying you can't judge drafting. Would we take Pastrnak over McCann? Absolutey. Would we have taken Ehlers over Virtanen? absolutely. Tkachuk over Juolevi, it certainly looks like we missed a good one but its not fair to comment until Juolevi has a year in the league. Either way, we could sit here all day and spit fire about who each team COULD have had, but it's a never ending circle.
- Codes1087

fair.

but it's got to taste salty.

That and you can’t expect a quick turnaround if your drafting guys like OJ and boeser with longer development curves.

what is a crappy argument is there is only one way to turn a club around.

how many clubs can tank and win the draft lottery each year?

sure you can see a club is headed in the right direction, but until they reach their desired destination, what have they really accomplished?

btw, I think the Leafs are headed in the right direction, but the job isn't done yet.
- hillbillydeluxe

Totally. The Leafs are definitely in the upswing - but Leafs fans would have never put up with a teardown without the 10 years of "holy crap what did the Leafs just do?". They were ready for a tear down. We're two years away from a 100 point season, and we still have our two best players giving it a go. That may not mean much to a lot of Leafs fans with rich history, but it means a lot us Nucks fans whose history includes a Stan Smyl jersey in the rafters.

If this re-tool on the fly and surrounding our prospects with the Sedins, so we're not mailing it in every game so our fans can throw jerseys on the ice, does not work ok - we'll cross that bridge when we get there. But Leafs fans to say, do it our way because see what we have is not only disingenuous, but Rask for Raycroft stupid.