The Star (Damien Cox to be more precise) has accused the Maple Leafs of terrible asset management. Cox suggests that the McCabe deal is terrible. Many people may be agreeing with him. Afterall, the Leafs have literally sent the following players packing with virtually nothing to show for them: Belfour, Domi, Tucker,Wellwood, and Raycroft. The trades involving McCabe, Gill, Kilger, and Belak involved at least some exchange of assets coming back to Toronto. But none of these moves brought the Leafs much back of value.
Then all the moves in the summer involved a transfer of draft picks for marginal talents (eg.,2nd for Garbovski, 3rd for Mayers, 5th for Hollweg). Here is a summary of draft pick transfers:
1st round: none
2nd round: + (Gill) - (Schenn) - (Garbovski) = -1
3rd round: + (Kilger) - (Schenn) - (Mayers) = -1
4th round: - (Van Ryn) = -1
5th round: + (Belak) + (Gill) - (Hollweg) = +1
Essentially they are down two picks right now which at this point this is'n consequential since there is no draft in September. The draft takes place in June and the Leafs will be sellers next February so the pick count will change. Sure they haven't acquired any 1st round picks but with few valuable assets and loads of no-trade contracts, those types of trades just weren't going to happen.
This team should have some real difficulty scoring goals. It's a toss up who will be their leading scorer but that player will likely have only 60 points or so. But the Leafs will be far more physical and they will play hard. There will likely be no more mailed in efforts. That is already progress.
Cliff Fletcher wasn't hired to rebuild the Leafs. He is an interim manager who was hired to clean out the malcontents and make salary cap space. He has done that and likely not finished. I would have been happy to see the rebuilding start this year rather than wait a year. But as long as it is accomplished, the team becomes competitive, then I can be patient.
12 years ago
