"loading the leafs up with just young guys next season and having them be terrible and unwatchable, and potentially ruin those players, or have the leafs sign a bunch of bums and keep the young guys down and then we spend all of next season yelling about "bring nylander up!!!"..." also known as the oilers' strategy for the past 6 years
Just for reference, the Bruins 1st round selections were Jakub Zboril, Jake DeBrusk, and Zachary Senyshyn. A few players of note that were picked after these 3 were Barzal, Chabot, Boeser, and Aho.
The 2015 draft was the best draft of the 2010’s by a country mile. It shaped the NHL into what it is now. So many huge names. McDavid, Eichel, Marner, Barzal, Koneckny, Aho, Meier, Rantanen, Chabot, Connor, Werenski. Just ridiculous.
My favorite pick this draft was dmytro timashov, saw highlights of him and he was flying. Ukrainian descent and he finished first at even strength points in the QMJHL with 61(points). Plus he played alongside TBL prospect Adam Erne and finished the season with 90 points in 66 gp.
As an Islander fan, I love how you have Grabovski and Kulemin Islander shirseys. I hope Grabner proves to be an effective player for you. I don't think Capuano knew how to use his talents.
I think the problem with the size thing is that everyone wants a big skilled player, it's simply what every team wants...but teams reach hoping the size makes up for the skill or that the size will mix into it later.
Ron Hextall was pretty goddam magical during those few days. Getting the Leafs 24th pick and managing to get Travis Konecny. Drafting a (hopefully) great future first line defenceman in Ivan Provorov. With Provorov it gives us another huge prospect to be alongside Sanheim, Morin and Gostisbehere...if all goes according to plan that blueline is going to be young,great and terrifying. And to top it off trading one of the worst defenceman Philadelphia had in Nick Grossman as well as Pronger's contract to Arizona for Sam Gagner. I would say the Flyers had a near perfect NHL Draft from the teams of the Eastern Conference alongside Toronto and the Islanders. Buffalo's was probably perfect.
Really happy for Song hockey is finally growing as an international sport. Edmonton, Calgary, Buffalo will be hard to beat next season. Wonder who doesn't make it to the playoffs then? Cannot wait for Behind the B Season 3 to see how the Dougie Hamilton trade process started. Bruins sure know how to trade away emerging superstars before they come back and haunt them afterwards.
Calgary essentially went from one of the worst d-cores beyond the 1st pair (Russell is good and could break out this year, but Wideman was like an anchor one him) to one of the top 3 in the west. The essentially have two number 1 d-men and a number 2 along with a a solid number 4 in Russell. The only thing they really need to add for next year is a 2nd line RW and they could be absolutely disgusting. And they can ideally get that for Wideman. Ideally their line up will be Gaudreau-Monahan-Hudler Bennett-Backlund-new guy Bouma-Stajan-Jones Ferland-Jooris-Colborne Giordano-Brodie Russell-Hamilton Schlemko-Wotherspoon/Morrison/Nakladal
theTomas117 Also liked what the Sabres did. Funny how they lost on McJesus, but now they have RoR and Eichel as the 1-2 punch (and don't forget Reinhart). All they need to fix is their defense corps and guys like Bogosian and Jake McCabe ought to help but aren't exactly the answer. Oh wait, look at the solid defensemen available this free agency!
Hushoo Yep, and then Edmonton made some good moves too with Talbot (of course, that feels alot like the previous Fasth and Scrivens moves) and the other Reinhart... Oh yeah, and the little chesnut of having McDavid. In 3-4 years Calgary, Edmonton, and Buffalo just might be the leagues elite.
theTomas117 I hope Wides is gone, he had a career year last year and I don't see him doing any better than that... As for two number 1 d-men and a number 2, I don't know if you're saying Brodie or Hamilton is the number 2... but Brodie is a number 1 d-man in this league. He was a monster last year, I can't wait for Smid to get healthy, if we re-sign Schlemko him and Smid will make a great 3rd pair, then we can send down Engelland or keep him as a healthy scratch, because let's be honest, no way in the world are we going to get rid of that contract. top 3 in the west? I like the sound of that haha.
Tim Smith I was saying Hamilton is a #2. Brodie more than proved he's a legit #1 the way he made Engelland look half passable as a top-4 d-man. An argument could be made for Hamilton, but he still has some kinks that Brodie has already ironed out (namely the occasionally boneheaded play)
The Latvian kid should just be called "S's" from now on. Also, our Zetterberg/Datsyuk was Kaberle. They don't come around often, but we got one. Some teams never get one. And best news? Dermott and Korostelev end up real good in NHL15 after a few years. Good picks, Leafs.
I think the idea is to sign a bunch of bums to fill up roster spots. Managment said they were going to target free agents to fill up roster spots so the young guys can develop.
Holy crap! I came back to this video just to say that Phil Kessel actually was traded to Pittsburgh Penguins! :D But... Steve how the heck did you know? o.O?
While it is hard to swallow losing our best player, it was clear that Kessel would not be part of the Leafs future rebuild. Sure, he's not the best all around hockey player out there, but he's one of the best at scoring and consistently finishes in the top 10 year after year (minus last year's debacle of the Leafs season). It's true, he is an ironman. Hasn't missed a game in 5 seasons. He was also mis-cast or mis-used on the Leafs. I'm not sure if Burke's intention was to acquire a top-line center (ie. Getzlaf at the time, but they couldn't get him), or if he actually thought Kessel was going to be the leader and character guy to carry the team. We all know that Kessel is NOT that type of player. He is not a heart and soul kind of player who leads with his 200 feet game. He's an elite scoring winger with underrated passing, one of the best releases in the game, and one of the fastest skaters in the NHL. I think it's great that he has moved on, because it will be good for Leafs nation to not have to focus on this thing anymore, and good for Phil that he doesn't have to be criticized and lambasted like this (be it deserving or undeserving). This is a good trade for Toronto because we are getting back a lot of pieces to the rebuild. Kapanen is a projected top 6 forward, and he fits the bill with what the Leafs are focusing on now: speed, skill, and hockey sense. Kapanen was also the #1 european skater in his draft year (number 2 was guess who, William Nylander). Harrington is projected to be a top 4 dman, stay at home, steady, solid player who can log big minutes. He has a championship pedigree and has leader written all over him. The 1st round pick in 2016 is anyone's guess what it will turn out to be, but let's just assume with Hunter/Dubas now here, the pick will be a good one and may turn out to be another star player. The 3rd round can also yield an exceptional player. Spaling is a good veteran to keep around for the team, but he can also be flipped for another pick later on. I have more trust in our new coaching and management team, their philosophy, their plans to develop a new system and culture, and their competence in drafting. So the Leafs are looking in great shape: Marner, Nylander, Kapanen, Brown, Gauthier, Leipsic, Rielly, Harrington, Finn, Percy, Loov, Andreas Johnson, Bracco, Dermott, Nielsen, give or a take a few names ......this team is oozing with skill and intelligent players. Leafs have quickly become one of the deepest prospect filled organizations (top 10 by latest rankings), and our future is looking bright.
The Bruins really dicked up that draft. God. Barzal, Connor, Boeser, Konecny, Chabot, Samsanov, Aho… any combination of the above three players would make the Bruins a much better team today: agreed?
It could have been Sebastian Aho in the 2nd round... Though, well, Leafs cap wouldn't survive that :) Or, maybe, there would be no need to pick up Tavares...
Here's something to think about: why the heck would you trade Kessel, JVR, Phaneuf after the kind of season they had? It's nuts to trade guys when their values are at the absolute lowest, and to add, the Leafs top guys haven't exactly been playing with the kind of support players found on good teams. Get some games pairing Kessel with Kadri, Nylander, even Marner to make a decision. Remember how Giroux was making pigeon noises at JVR during the HBO special? He's got a point. Until we get rid of the freeloaders on Kessel (and Phaneuf's backs) we're not going to see each player's peak.
Hushoo their shouldn't be a trade value on anyone because they played on a bad team, you bring a good player on a terrible he can only do so much right. if these guys were to get traded to good teams they can flourish and GM's know what they get from these players its not like this is the first year these guys have played in the nhl.
Mitch Marner was featured on citytv's athlete of the week in the early 2000s, and wouldn't you know it, he gets drafted by the leafs. " Half of everything is luck. the other half? Fate
Wanna know why Flames have a successful rebuild? They were patient when they had to be and played young stars when they were ready. Giordano is 31. Older than Phaneuf. They have patiently kept him around and worked him into a defensive star with offensive skill. They have also given their young guns a chance. I get waiting but when a guy like Monahan or Gaudreau are ready and you have a team with some veterans, you get them in there. Toronto has not done that and, in fact, have hurt one of their once better assets in Kadri. They need to consider playing (and I mean actually playing 60-70 games) a guy like Nylander who I feel is NHL ready. He and Gauthier I think can make the leap. Surround Gauthier with the likes of Komarov and Winnik (please bring him back) and up front you can maybe keep a Lupul to help mentor a young forward like Nylander. I dont think its rushing, I think its giving them a chance when they are actually ready. None of this playing them on the 3rd line for 10-12 minutes for 3 straight seasons
The draft itself was good. Leafs went for skill at every turn which is good. We need skill, skill is remarkably helpful for not sucking. Only a handful of these guys will probably make it, and the ones that do will be darn good. Marner especially is an insanely good pick. Will go back to London next year, the Leafs can say "play him at center dammit!" and that will get done. Can play on Canada's top line at the world juniors and keep getting better. Maybe he plays the year after, will have to see how he physically gets stronger. The trades....we can hope. At some level I think we may be stuck with this core for another season so that Babcock can raise up their trade value. Now it's off to preparing for 2016 draft. I don't even care about UFA honestly, sign a bunch of Winnik-like contracts to trade at the deadline. And get ready for a long season.
FlareKnight see with drafting all this skill and hopefully they contribute to the leafs moving forward in a 3 years they can trade for big guys that can help in a playoff run when the team is ready
frankie rizzi Yeah, having skilled guys is just more valuable. When you need to trade for pieces you need it's a lot easier when you have skilled young players rather than guys who are big...but not all that good.
The only shitty move I thought the Avs did was trading Jamie MacGinn to the Sabers. OReily is all psyched to be a vocal leader on the Sabers because he never got that chance in Colorado....... Patrick Roy has said time and again. You have to show him and the rest of the staff what you can do and how you are willing to go about it. You have to show you can make it happen. If you have to wait to be a leader.... You are kinda not a leader. That and O'Reily did terrible last season after Stasny went to the Blues. It was like O'Reily's BFF left and he just shut down. MacGinn was a harder hit for us. He was great on our team.
