So said Yoda to Luke, warning him NOT to give into the temptation of the Dark Side.
Sadly for Toronto Maple Leaf fans, their team continues to give into temptation, year after year. And this time, without the right to draft a top pick this year or next, it will truly come back to haunt them.
The Leafs and most of their lemming like fan base are giddy with excitement to start the 09/10 season. Well count this particular fan out of the party.
The moves Brian Burke has made (trading away 1st round draft choices) show the same impatience for which Ferguson and Quinn and Fletcher (notice the trend here) were all pilloried. And the hockey media (new and old) of Toronto are complicit in this as they have all come out with admiring words for Burke’s desire to win right now. Whereas they would have (and did) kill his predecessors’ exactly similar mortgage the future moves.
Burke’s quotes after the Kessel deal make clear that they are not building towards a Stanley Cup, but rather taking the quick and easy path, trying to shorten the success cycle, towards nothing more than contention for the last couple of playoff spots.
Well fuck that! I want a CUP, not a 1st round loss.
The sad fact is that up until Burke traded away the picks for Kessel things were actually looking up for the franchise. Along with Luke Schenn from last year, the selection of Kadri at #7 this year was looking even more positive than if the Leafs had finished last and drafted Tavares (the kid can’t skate well enough to live up to the hype). If the Leafs had just been willing to put in the time and endure another lackluster season, it was quite likely they would draft top 3 (what with the improvements of most of the other bottom feeders) and would certainly end up with one of Hall, Fowler, or Kabanov. Anyone of whom, specifically Hall, may well be better than Kessel (an admittedly excellent young sniper who nonetheless is cause for concern coming off his injury) in the long run.
But they just could not wait. As has been the case for 40+ years, the Leafs are trying to do things the easy way.
And it will not work. It never works. It is fundamentally not the way to construct an elite franchise that contends, not for the playoffs, but FOR THE CUP, every single year.
By missing out on someone like Taylor Hall or Cam Fowler they are missing out of long term building blocks.
Worst of all fans seem to think that it’s ok because we received Phil Kessel in return. The problem is, in a salary capped league, they are paying FULL MARKET VALUE for him, whereas when you draft young stars you get them at a cost controlled price for their first three years. By having to pay Kessel full price, the Leafs forgo the ability to use that money on other players with which to surround their young stars. Something they would be able to do had they simply waited, drafted high next year, and slowly developed their own young talent.
But no, the Leafs have chosen the quick and easy path…to oblivion.
And for the thinking Leafs fan (a seemingly rarer and rarer breed), without the hope of high draft choices for long term Stanley Cup contention, what is left for him?
Naught.
For heaven’s sake, even convicted murderer Colin Thatcher had the Faint Hope Clause.
Fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs are now bereft of even that.
Tags: Brian Burke, Cam Fowler, Colin Thatcher, Kirill Kabanov, Luke Skywalker, Phil Kessel, Star Wars, Toronto Maple Leafs, Yoda
September 30, 2009 at 1:14 pm |
Some faith. It goes a long way.
September 30, 2009 at 2:24 pm |
It’s like I said before; ‘You don’t maximize your monetary returns by winning the Stanley Cup, you just want to go a couple of rounds in the playoffs.’ Once those retired teachers dug their claws into the team the only thing that matters now is ROI (Return on Investment). I told both you and Jim that when it happened. Am I clairvoyant or what?
October 1, 2009 at 12:24 am |
Scollard stating the obvious does not make you clairvoyant.