The Leafs will stink for years, unfortunately.

ablatt · Post #1 » by **ablatt** » Wed Mar 3, 2010 1:33 am

1. They don't have a good goalie.

I could stop there because nobody wins without a bonafied #1 stopper, especially a bunch of scrubs like the Leafs.

They gave up all their foreseeable future for Phil Kessel, who is a good player, but not good enough to mortgage your future for.

Who knows if Phaneuf will ever be that good.

They have dumped almost all their decent talent for younger worse players or low draft picks and will most likely continue that before tomorrow's trade deadline. I have no clue where Burke thinks he will get players who are as good as the ones he dumped for the same or less money, but what do I know?

It's so sad, and I feel for Ron Wilson, who must think he's just woken from a dream into a nightmare.

bassmastert · Post #2 » by **bassmastert** » Wed Mar 3, 2010 8:39 am

Giguere's a good #1 goalie. The problem with this team for years has been horrible defence. You put a prime Brodeur on this team and he still wouldn't be able to make it a playoff team.

They will be bad for another couple years, but they're building well from within and getting younger. I can at least see a playoff spot within 3 years if all goes according to plan.

Post #3 » by **j127** » Wed Mar 3, 2010 9:42 am

bassmastert wrote:Giguere's a good #1 goalie. The problem with this team for years has been horrible defence. You put a prime Brodeur on this team and he still wouldn't be able to make it a playoff team.

They will be bad for another couple years, but they're building well from within and getting younger. I can at least see a playoff spot within 3 years if all goes according to plan.

So true. It's funny reading the mapleleafs.com forums. Season after season, Leafs Nation feels that with a superstar goalie, the Leafs will be contenders. They don't seem to understand that the most pressing problem with the Leafs isn't goaltending, although it is a problem that needs/needed to be addressed. The most pressing problem was and still is the horrible defence.

Just like you said, you could put a prime Brodeur or Hasek in net for the Leafs and they still won't make the playoffs, because their defencemen are either as slow as molasses in winter or are trying to have a "who can pretend to be the best pylon" contest game after game. Just horrible.

Burke has tried to address that this season, but defence still isn't our strong suit and now our offence has regressed even more with all our trades.

Hopefully we can sign some good free agents or something, since Boston seems like they'll have fun with their #2 draft pick from the Leafs for years to come.

ablatt · Post #4 » by **ablatt** » Wed Mar 3, 2010 12:04 pm

I'm not saying they'll contend for anything meaningful with a #1 goalie but they'd certainly be closer to .500 with one.

Just look at how good Belfour was with a team that wasn't that great either. He won games and didn't let in so many bad goals. The goalies the Leafs trot out let in at least a bad goal a game on most nights and that demoralizes a team that relies on superhuman effort to have any chance to win.

Everything starts with the goalie and no matter how good your D is you're going nowhere without a top flight goalie.

raps4life~ · Post #5 » by **raps4life~** » Wed Mar 3, 2010 3:39 pm

This is the worst team in Leafs history. Usually with a team this bad, there will be some good young prospects/draft picks to look forward to. But not this team. We only have one top6 forward. Our defense is beyond overpaid. We are not going to be remotely relevant until 2015/2016. Not to mention we will be losing out on a Top3 draft pick for the next two years.

distracted · Post #6 » by **distracted** » Wed Mar 3, 2010 6:38 pm

It's worth noting that the Leafs/Raptors/Probably Jays will all post the worst defense in their league this year.

ablatt · Post #7 » by **ablatt** » Wed Mar 3, 2010 7:12 pm

Dummies hire dummies and the stench that permeates this team comes right from the top.

ablatt · Post #8 » by **ablatt** » Fri Mar 12, 2010 7:32 pm

Well I have to admit that Ron Wilson has them playing hard again. Not sure if that means there was some bad attitude/work ethic with the guys they got rid of, or the new guys are too young and enthusiastic to get disillusioned with losing.

But they are playing an exciting brand of hockey and are competitive against lower to middle-of-the-road teams and they are fun to watch.

Lets hope they keep it up, they sign one or two guys who can score, and Gustaffson turns into a top goalie.

Post #9 » by **Crowned** » Fri Mar 12, 2010 10:17 pm

The young guys on this team is making it fun to watch. I think guys like Bozak and Caputi are going to be gems. I see Bozak as our 2nd line center heading towards the future, and I've been extremely impressed with Caputi thus far. I love how he positions himself around the net, he's going to be a Burke/Wilson favourite.

In all honesty, my favourite player on the Leafs this season has been Kulemin. He simply doesn't get enough credit. He's been so good defensively, and on the PK. Watch when he's on the ice, he's the hardest working player out there, and the first to backcheck.

We have a nice young core to build around, it's unfortunate we gave away next years first rounder though. I would be okay with giving up this years first for Kessel, as I don't see true superstars this year other than maybe Hall (I wasn't impressed with Seguin at all when I saw him play twice this year- it could've been him struggling throughout those games, but he wasn't anything special).

ablatt · Post #10 » by **ablatt** » Fri Mar 12, 2010 10:49 pm

You're right about Kulemin. Grabowski also backchecks like crazy. He may not have a lot of finish and he's not big, but he works hard defensively. I've seen him come back and break up plays many times.

Dr Positivity · Post #11 » by **Dr Positivity** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 7:59 am

Bozak
Kulemin
Gunnarson
Stalberg
Caputi

Love em all. Losing the big draft pick hurts, but having 5 steals like this DEFINITELY relieves the load. Bozak Kulemin and Gunnarson in particular are **** awesome. These guys could be legitimate blue chippers

Marmoset · Post #12 » by **Marmoset** » Sat Mar 20, 2010 3:02 am

I think the Leafs could be decent as soon as next year. My concern is that Burke is setting the Leafs up to be a team that will be consistently decent or good but not great - trading the two first-rounders (especially this year's) is a big part of that, plus various other picks that have gone away. The Leafs have a lot of decent prospects but very few high-end prospects - I don't see guys like Gunnarson, Stalberg, Caputi, etc. as blue chip prospects, just solid ones. Depth isn't bad at all, but I think the Leafs are going to have to find a few elite guys somewhere and I'm not sure if they're going to be able to do that.

Right now you have Kadri and Kessel as your only definite top-notch young guys (and Phaneuf, I'm leaving out more experienced guys). Schenn might be, Gustavsson is a big question mark, and I'm not sure where to put Bozak - he's definitely looked really, really good and I didn't think he was capable of playing this well, this fast. If he can be a true top-line guy, that changes my outlook a little.

It really comes down to my philosphy versus Burke's - mine is to blow it up completely and stink for a few years while picking up a true elite player or two with top-5 picks. Burke's is to rebuild more quickly and sacrifice some of those picks to speed up the process. We've seen so many rushed and/or poorly executed rebuilds with our various Toronto teams that just once I'd like to see it done properly. (Aside: I think the Jays are doing this type of rebuild now).

But back to the original topic - the Leafs won't stink in the coming years. They just probably won't be Cup contenders.