Jay Greenberg: At Least The Leafs Know How Much They Have to Grow Up

Good piece

Nicely written. And true. Lot's of growing pains still ahead, and still 1 or 2 key players away from truly contending.

Agreed Tums. It was a good write!..the leafs having a blue line that was absolutely suspect! And then now to have two down in zaitsev and Rielly. .won't help! But as long as their competing in games. .not taking nights off.and moving forward. . The younger guys learnig to work hard every shift ..it's a process..I personally hope that all the RFAs are traded before the deadline. .their not winning this year anyway. .so keep building the prospect pool and collect some draft picks! Imho

Agreed Tums. It was a good write!..the leafs having a blue line that was absolutely suspect! And then now to have two down in zaitsev and Rielly. .won't help! But as long as their competing in games. .not taking nights off.and moving forward. . The younger guys learnig to work hard every shift ..it's a process..I personally hope that all the RFAs are traded before the deadline. .their not winning this year anyway. .so keep building the prospect pool and collect some draft picks! Imho
- MR.Hunter

I agree. With the lead that the Leafs have over the rest of their division and injuries to Reilly and Zaitsev, it's allowing the call-ups a chance to show their wares. And Dermott is progressing well. Moves the puck quickly and not afraid to throw a hit. I really hope we move JVR soon. No way in the world we should commit a 5 or 6 year deal to keep him. A player like Kapanen will be a more rounded fit eventually with ice time

..I said RFAs. .I ment ufas

I agree. With the lead that the Leafs have over the rest of their division and injuries to Reilly and Zaitsev, it's allowing the call-ups a chance to show their wares. And Dermott is progressing well. Moves the puck quickly and not afraid to throw a hit. I really hope we move JVR soon. No way in the world we should commit a 5 or 6 year deal to keep him. A player like Kapanen will be a more rounded fit eventually with ice time
- Leafsmart

Totally agree

Mr. Greenberg, once again an excellent article! Well done!

Im not sure what I want them to do, its a hard call. Its rare to have this much young great talent at the same time and under great contracts. Are we going to win this year? Well there are a few teams that look better right now. There are also a number of teams with a better D but few that have a more dynamic offence from top to bottom. Trading the big three ufas will certainly make the team weaker for this playoff run but in turn should also give you a fairly sweet return. On the other hand you only get so many chances and its so hard to win a cup that reducing your chances this year to take chances on players that may or may not develop into pieces is also a risk. Unfortunately with salary caps its hard to hold on to a lot at the same time buring there prime. Ask the chicago blackhawks.

Basically the leafs are in a catch 22 unless they win the cup. Trade the players and lose and people will say they should have never traded them. Keep them and lose and people say we wasted our chance to strengthen the core and got nothing to show for it now.

Komarov could potentiallt be replaced by Soshnikov, there similar players but lack in experience of course. And Komarov gets a bum wrap sometimes but he's a great playoff style player that any team would like to have. Then JVR has some of the best hands in the game for picking up pucks in front of the net and bozak is a consistent solid all around centre. Both assets that teams would love including the leafs. We could replace them with Leivo and Kapanen. Would be a temporary down grade but could be two solid players with a little more seasoning.

As I said its a hard call and im not sure what the right answer is. I personally would like them to trade two of the three and count who they keep as our rental player and count our loses on that one. Keep Moore and Polak as they wont fetch you much on the trade market and keep them as depth players. You need to be a few players deep in your lineup for playoff injuries which almost always happen.

Make the right decisions lou where all counting on you...Go Leafs Go!!!

Agreed Tums. It was a good write!..the leafs having a blue line that was absolutely suspect! And then now to have two down in zaitsev and Rielly. .won't help! But as long as their competing in games. .not taking nights off.and moving forward. . The younger guys learnig to work hard every shift ..it's a process..I personally hope that all the RFAs are traded before the deadline. .their not winning this year anyway. .so keep building the prospect pool and collect some draft picks! Imho
- MR.Hunter

In todays nhl you can never say your not a contender the field is so close. Unless your the coyotes, sabres or canadians (sorry habs fans couldn't resist!). Two years ago nobody would have picked the penguins as cup contenders until the last month or so of the season. Until then they were battling to stay in the 16th seed. Crosby was on a downward spiral in his career and people were saying his best days were over. And there D outside of letang was suspect at best and fleury was inconsistent. Well we all know how that one panned out. So we can never say never with a talented team. Would I bet the house probably not but if they make some serious noise that wouldn't surprise me either. They will be in tough vs tampa or the bruins but I think they can beat either with the right effort. Could go either way, just looking forward to seeing it happen and how it pans out.