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It appears that Maple Leafs Team President Brendan Shanahan has been given the green light by ownership to put the club down the path of the long overdue full rebuild.
According to Cathal Kelly of the Globe and Mail, Shanahan and his management team met with several members of the Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment board two weeks ago and got the thumbs up to institute their plan for rebuilding the club.
This would include a “scorched-earth approach of moving out as many of the current core group as possible and following the model that many current top NHL contenders have used; finishing near the bottom of the league to select at the top of the NHL Draft and adding their own cornerstone players instead of overpaying for those kind of players in trade or in free agency.
Kelly indicates from sources familiar with the meeting that the organization is prepared to endure a painful term of three to five years to reap the rewards of selecting top draft picks and developing their own young players, which was the primary reason why former OHL GM’s Mark Hunter and Kyle Dubas were added to the management team.
Is this what #Leafs management is preparing to do? http://t.co/Mvwq5jmsn8 pic.twitter.com/iX0YlyVaNT
— Michael Augello (@MikeInBuffalo) February 12, 2015This nuclear option is the only prudent way left for Toronto after the club has encountered epic fails in four seasons under three head coaches with virtually the same core group. The landscape of the Atlantic Division alone shows how daunting a task it will be to get the Leafs back to respectability.
Tampa Bay, Detroit and Montreal all have young cornerstones in Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Gustav Nyquist, Tomas Tatar, Carey Price and PK Subban that will keep them Stanley Cup contenders for years, Boston has time remaining before twenty-somethings Patrice Bergeron, Milan Lucic, Brad Marchand and David Krejci are on the down slope of their career and Florida and Buffalo are well into their rebuilds and can look forward to the likes of Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Aaron Ekblad, Sam Reinhart and Connor McDavid/Jack Eichel for years to come.
The only rival who may be as bad off as the Leafs is Ottawa, who has Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson and youngsters Mika Zibanejad and Mike Hoffman, but are limited by owner Eugene Melnyk’s budgetary restraints.
Going the direction of a full rebuild is well overdue. The desire was there in 2008 and 2009 when Stamkos, Drew Doughty, Alex Pietrangelo, John Tavares, Victor Hedman and Matt Duchene were at the top of the draft, but instead Toronto wallowed in mediocrity drafted Luke Schenn and Nazem Kadri and tried for quick fixes like signing Francois Beauchemin and trading for Phil Kessel.
There is only one efficient way to add franchise players in the league now and it is not free agency and it is not via trades. It is the draft. It is slow and success is not guaranteed, but it is the only way the Leafs will acquire the pieces necessary to become an NHL contender by the end of this decade.
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Watch the February 12th Edition of Leaf Buzz with Paul Bruno:
The Maple Leafs begin a brief two game road trip in Long Island on Thursday, as they make their final visit to Nassau Coliseum to take on the New York Islanders.
The Isles have 71 points and lead the Metropolitan Division by 1 over Pittsburgh, who won 4-1 over the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday.
Toronto will go with Jonathan Bernier after three straight starts by James Reimer and will be without veterans Joffrey Lupul and Dion Phaneuf.
Lupul is expected to be out at least one week after re-aggravating a lower-body injury against the Rangers on Tuesday, while Phaneuf continues to be on injured reserve with a hand injury suffered prior to the All-Star break.
Defenseman Petter Granberg was recalled from the AHL Toronto Marlies due to defenseman Cody Franson not practicing for a maintenance day. The 26-year-old pending free agent blueliner is dealing with an unspecified injury, but it is not expected to prevent him from being in the lineup on Thursday.
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