during Burke's tenure we've had the exact number of picks over the years.
I think people have issue with nonis's trading of 2nds. which is pretty hard to argue when you realize we have Bernier, bolland, Holland and Holland looks like the worst of them.
Burke did a stellar job of adding prospects to this team. but people have a moronic issue of non-team drafted players. kessel will never be as good as he could because he isn't a leaf draft pick. its moronic.
i cant speak for everyone but for me idc if Nonis trades 2nds as long as it isn't a 1st imo(however if the return is worth it go for it), 2nds are a dime a dozen. We have acquired some pretty talented players with those 2nd round picks as well which includes our franchise goaltender, however, what i dont like is losing out on value when it is clear that a player has hit his peak potential and keeping that asset will only decrease the value of that asset. We had a chance to trade Grabo, Kuly,Mac one year with Brian Burke and he decided to keep those players and get nothing out of Macurthur, we ended up buying out Grabovski and right now looks like we will lose out on getting valuable asset for Kulimen. Everyone with good vision could see that year with Burke we could have traded these players and gutted our team and just lost every game and thats what he didn't want, a losing atmosphere but this culture has changed and it is a team to win and imo Kulimen and Raymond aren't guys we will retain and we should get their value for them while we can when its at its peak aka the trade deadline.
Now i would trade younger players aka Gardiner, Kadri, Franson and even Rielly (would have to be a huge return) but for young players aswell, i dont overvalue prospects, i just dont like losing assets when we know we wont keep them, I said the same thing about mcarthur and bozak last year but keeping kulimen for the playoffs will help us obviously but imo letting a prospect who might be with our team longterm aka D'amigo, Ashton, Leivo, Mckegg, Holland could benefit more and the Leafs would benefit more, and re-couping assets is great because in 2-3 years they could possibly push out another player like D'amigo which we gave a chance too and then trade that asset for another asset. Its a continious cycle with having ur core players + others pushing for spots with prospects, Kulimen hasn't lost his spot but out of asset management we should move him for a 1st, grab another late 1st rounder let him develop in our system... we can only benefit from having more high end talent being drafted by our team for players we may dont necissarily need to be successful in the playoffs, its not like Kessel is a UFA and were talking about losing our leading scorer, this is a 3rd liner. Raymond is in the same boat as Kulimen.... I agree losing them will decrease our chances of winning but let our core player gain more experience, give our prospects chances, people shiver around here about letting prospects play in big games but how can they prove their worth unless they prove it in those big games.I realize this draft is weak but having 3 guys grow in our system which we can retain for a long time rather than 2 players we can control for 2 months is way better asset management, something the Leafs have lacked for a long time.
Also, these are assets, these assets might mature in 4 years but there movable, its not like once u draft a player you cant move them. Like the Jays did with the Haladay trade, you trade for for younger assets, and when your team is ready to compete you have those extra assets to use to propel your team. The Leafs in previous years didn't draft, (2000s) trade their prospects for the good of winning, which is good. The Leafs also got burned by getting literally no assets for Sundin, Tucker, Mccabe, Kubina (well we got Komi) all of which should have given us a lot of younger assets(we did get a good return for Kaberle though, not Jeff Carter and a 1st though
. You can trade younger players when your going for it, but imo this Leafs team isn't good enough to giving up assets for playoff pushes (yes losing kulimen in the summer is giving up assets). They also dont have a lot of assets to be tossing around. Its not like we have 5 Matt Finns, we only have 2 imo, him and Percy with chances for Granberg and others which are closer to reaches than anything, we dont have a lot of assets to just give away when people will want to compete, the cupboards aren't bare but their not overbearing either remember the difference.
Our prospect pool, while it is better than it has been in recent years, still isn't amazing. Its good, but we dont have multiple blue chips at every position. We have areas we can improve and the best way to do that is draft players and develop them, as a prospect who comes into a team with a winning culture and has won a couple of times before (made the playoffs, ect)playing is so much easier than having to be the guy. What I mean is, everyone wonders how Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Bergeron, Lucic, Marchand are all so good being drafted so late in the draft, its because they came into a winning atmospher. They didn't have the weight of the world on them to lead the team, so picking up some guys in the draft early could pay dividends later, especially with a team that has a lot of talent already, bringing in more elite talent at the jr level to develop in our system is very beneficial.
Now i agree with the poster above about the Leafs and Kings both having slim chances of winning, hockey is a sport of upsets because bounces go every which way..... LA isn't the class of the NHL by any stretch, yes there a good team but not the best or favourites...
