3 year anniversary of the collapse: Would things be differently today?

[BayStreetBully]

In the 2014 draft, Ekblad, Reinhart, Draisaitl, & Bennet were the top 4 overall selections.

In the 2015 draft the top 2 guys were McDavid & Eichel.

So, its real hard to say, but I don't think its an easy decision or truly clear cut that we are better off today than we would have been. What if we ended up with Ekblad and Eichel as an example?

It's incredibly hard to finish last overall, as we saw this year. Everyone near the bottom "would like" to finish last overall and not 2nd or 3rd last overall. Us finishing in 30th this year took a great amount of luck that Edmonton and Vancouver won those extra 1 or 2 games, and took some luck that we lost that game we easily could have won.

And that's before factoring in the lottery. Since no team has good odds to win the lottery, I wouldn't like our chances of winning Matthews again in a re-draft. We didn't get Eichel, but Matthews makes up for that. Could we have gotten Eichel AND Ekblad? We would have to outtank Buffalo last year, AND win the 2014 lottery. That's hard to do, no matter how hard you tank.

I'm thanking our lucky stars we got just 1 of McDavid, Eichel or Matthews. I don't know how rebuilding 2 years earlier would have given us more than what we already have. Especially since if we had gotten Eichel last year, we probably wouldn't have had 20% odds for Matthews this year.

 

[The CyNick]

We likely would have won the Cup that year.

 

[HoweHullOrr]

Yes, but the question then becomes would you change a thing about the past 3 years? I know I wouldn't. We got Nylander at 8 and Ekblad is the only player I'd definitively take over him in 2014. Marner arguably should have gone #3 in 2015.

So despite the delay in rebuild, it's like we drafted #2 in 2014, #3 in 2015, and #1 in 2016.

In the 2014 draft, Ekblad, Reinhart, Draisaitl, & Bennet were the top 4 overall selections.

In the 2015 draft the top 2 guys were McDavid & Eichel.

So, its real hard to say, but I don't think its an easy decision or truly clear cut that we are better off today than we would have been. What if we ended up with Ekblad and Eichel as an example?

It's incredibly hard to finish last overall, as we saw this year.

You narrowed it down to the example versus the point being made - quite the prevalent practice here. How about Eichel and Draisatl then? Neither are 1st rounders. If we tore it down then, we could still also end up with a really good pick this year as well. Not as easy to come to solid conclusion as some might think.

 

[BayStreetBully]

You narrowed it down to the example versus the point being made - quite the prevalent practice here. How about Eichel and Draisatl then? Neither are 1st rounders. If we tore it down then, we could still also end up with a really good pick this year as well. Not as easy to come to solid conclusion as some might think.

What are you arguing? Who cares about Eichel and Draisaitl? We got Matthews and Nylander. Delaying our rebuild by 2 years likely hasn't hurt us. Whatever difference we can see between Draisaitl and Nylander right now is miniscule. I could see the argument before we won Matthews, but I just don't see it anymore.

 

[Kessely Snipes]

Everything happens for a reason

 

[FlareKnight]

Everything happens for a reason

Agreed.

In the end, I'll just take this route as the path we needed to go on. That because things were handled so poorly and bungled along the way that Shanahan was able to come in and take the team on the path it is now on.

Who knows if that is the case for sure, but I'm pretty happy where we are right now. That next time we're in the playoffs, no matter how long that takes, that we will be built to have a better future.

 

[Sniper99]

Are there going to be 4th and 5th year anniversary threads too? What about 10th?

Really guys, shut it down.

 

[Josh92]

Probably. It's Leaf nation. We discuss everything to death lol.