I think this is pretty interesting.
The Leafs are the strongest team in the league (among strongest in the world) in revenue/profits/fans, but ownership is in a pickle. They are owned by two companies who bought this thing depending on growth, they don't have forever, they need to grow it. Not stay the same, certainly not shrink.. and at the same time they are invested heavily in the NHL ratings game.
Should be obvious that the success of the Leafs is correlated with NHL ratings.. so they've kinda doubled down on the success of this franchise.. which, if you've been watching for the past decade or more, you'd have to scratch your head about. Retrospectively it seems bizarre from a risk management standpoint, granted I don't have access to the numbers they did but hard to argue it was a smart move right now.
Now the question is how to fix it? Will the media (which bell and rogers also own a decent chunk of) even allow a rebuild? There seems to be nothing that sells as well as an article tearing apart a losing leaf team. Brian Burke said this market would not tolerate a rebuild, what if he was right? How do you develop players with a camera constantly in their face asking why they suck?
Seems like these might be the first signs that the market is done with mediocrity, which Bell/Rogers can't buy their way out of due to the salary cap, and maybe can't address with a proper rebuild since: A - it may be beyond the scope of their investment (look at how long it is taking for Edmonton), B - it might cripple NHL rating growth to continue having a terrible Leaf team.
McDavid save them.