What Do The Leafs Do?
There has been a rush of these type of articles, some of them credible some of them idiotic, this one will look to set them straight.
The Toronto Maple Leafs fans know this season will not be the year we end the drought. You might as welll make it 40 years since we last won the cup. The Leafs have to re-build. Its not a question of if? Its a question of when?
The trouble with the leafs re-building is that MLSE is
afraid that the fans in Toronto will not accept the re-builiding stage. What they don’t realize is about 70% of the Leaf nation will accept the re-building.
The Leafs have tried to buy their way to the Holy
Grail for about 8 years. They didn’t develop their own players and only now are they starting too.
Every year when the Leafs lose it hurts the coach,
management, and the fans in a big way and with
the way MLSE is heading right now you can add another 40 years. You cannot buy a cup in the new NHL, you have to work for a cup.
The Leafs will be facing Washington on Tuesday, it
will be their first game back rom the break and if they don’t win they will be in a situation where they have to face Carolina, Buffalo and Ottawa in the
next few games with no confidence. If they lose
over 70% fo these games they will solde to 10-11th
place in the conference and then they can kiss their playoff hopes goodbye.
I have laid out a plan for the Leafs in the next 3 years, the plan starts this year.
Year 1:
The Leafs have lots of deadwieght on their roster in
the form of Aki Berg, Alexander Khavanov, Kenny
Klee, Eddie Belfour, Clark Wilm, Nik Antropov, Jason Allison, Tie Domi, Mats Sundin and Wade Belak. These guys need to go for draft picks and prospects.
With the likes of Stajan, Wellwood, Harrison, Kilger,
Kronvall, Coliacovo, Racine, Rask and Pogge soon
to be NHLers it is the year to rebuild. The Leafs should trade Bryan McCbae incase they can’t re-sign him at a high price instead of losing him for nothing to free agency.
To Minnesota:
Jason Allison,
Bryan McCabe,
2nd round pick
To Toronto:
Marian Gaborik
Patrick O’Sullivan
To Montreal:
Ken Klee
Aki Berg
To Toronto:
Chriss Higgins
5th round draft pick
To Edmonton:
Ed Belfour
Alexander Khavanov
To Toronto:
Robbie Shremp
4th round draft pick
To Chicago:
Nik Antropov
Tie Domi
Mats Sundin
3rd round pick
To Toronto:
Tyler Arnason
Mark Bell
1st round pick
OFF SEASON:
Leafs will have about 28 million dollars in salary
cap space with the new cap at 42 million dollars and will cost them about 9 million to re-sign who ever they need to, that leaves the Leafs with about 20 million dollars in space, here are the moves:
Sign Roberto Luongo:
4-years/6 million dollars
Sign Olli Jokinen:
5-years/4.5 million dollars
Sign Wade Redden:
5-years/5.5 million dollars
That leaves about 4.5 million dollars in cap space.
Year 2:
Head Coaching Job:
Fire Pat Quinn,
Call-up Paul Maurice
General Manager:
Fire JFJ,
hire Jack Nickolson (Team Canada Director)
Marlies:
Develop Shremp, O’Sullivan, Rask, Pogge, Higgins,
Racine, and Kessel?(Chicago 1st round pick)
OFF-SEASON
Re-sign the remaining players and draft picks which
will leave the Leafs with 4 million in cap space.
YEAR 3:
The buds will have a goaltending crisis by this point with Racine, Luongo, Pogge, Tellqvist, and
Rask. The only moves the Leafs should make is to
Tellqvist and Racine. I can’t predict which teams will
need goalies at this point but Tellqvist for a first round pick and Racine for a defensive or offensive
prospect.
Here is the roster:
Gaborik___Jokinen___Kessel
O’Sullivan__Steen__Bell
Wellwood__Stajan__Kilger
Lindros__Arnoson__Higgins
Kaberle___Redden
Harrison__Coliacovo
Schremp_Woznewski
Kronvall
__Luongo__
__Rask/Pogge__
There that is the three year plan for the Leafs to win the Stanley Cup.