How does failing in a small market matter when discussing big market failures?
The point is that pointing to a couple of goalies that have done poorly with the Leafs isn't proof of anything as they could just as easily have done poorly elsewhere.
The argument would be that it's harder to succeed in a big market which almost all hockey people would agree with.
Almost all hockey people huh. Those are big words, do you have anything to back them up or are you just spewing? Of course there is more pressure in big markets but as I said before, big markets often have great players and great teams so maybe this pressure thing is overstated. Professional athletes play with pressure all the time, some deal with it better than others. It's hard to quantify but maybe it's something like this:
Pressure scale (1 - 10):
AHL teams: Between 6-7 depending on the team
NHL teams: Between 8-9.5 depending on the team
Just pulling numbers out of the air here of course but my point is, there will be pressure no matter where in the NHL you play. There's more than just fans in the city, there's pressure re. how much money you will make in your career - will it be 2 million or 80 million - that pressure will be there no matter what city you play in.
What about guys who get drafted high, say Matthews as an example. Arizona is a small market but the pressure there would be even bigger than in Toronto perhaps. And even if he went to the smallest market in the NHL, there would still be a ton of pressure as the #1 pick. Yet overall, #1 picks do pretty well.
I'm sorry, like I said I'll keep an open mind but as of now, this BS about the Toronto market being some crippling factor is way overblown IMO.
"pressure is for tires" - Charles Barkley.
The dynamics in the biggest market are different. Hell just playing in Canada vs the US is different.
Not everything needs a study to be proven. Simply being a fan of this team for 25 years or so shows me that we're the toughest market for youth to develop in. If you need examples to prove that...go review 25 years of draft history.
You don't have to prove anything, sure no problem there. Don't expect me to change my opinion though without any compelling arguments.
No offence but I
at this 25 years of draft history "argument". Have all big market teams done poorly or is Toronto the only big market? If what you're saying is true, then we're doomed, no matter who we draft we're screwed anyway because OMG, players just can't play in "this market". Sorry but that's just nonsense, this team has had piss poor management, that's why we've done poorly. I think we have good management now and we will start doing much better.