Many fans wondered why Toronto even got Plekenac in the first place. This team had no defense and even if they got past Boston they were going nowhere anyway. We also get nothing for JVR and we tried to trade for Hamonic and luckily didn't get him. We still have glaring holes in our organization and we basically gave up 2 -2nd(Boyle and Plekanec) and a first rounder(JVR's worth at TD?). They gambled and failed. They may have also botched the rebuild. We have critical holes at C,D and G with more wingers than we can ever use. Half measures rarely work and we went half in when we weren't ready while still having holes at the most important positions. Teams built around wingers don't win cups..Management should have seen we didn't have the defense, we weren't going all the way this year and kept the picks while unloading our UFA's. The net result would have been identical, first round loss.
If we are following the Chicago model, we just failed. They loaded up on picks as much as possible so that their replacements would be ready when they couldn't pay certain guys before UFA. ALL we have is too many wingers who are not worth much on the trade market. TO top it off, many don't think Mathews is even as good as Sundin, so he won't be that sunset superman afterall. Many warned about this but the blind kept saying " We can win it all! It's now or never!" Now this team is in danger of imploding with no replacements other than tons of wingers. Good luck trading all those wingers for defense and center and if Andersen walks...game set and match. Too many cooks spoil the broth and the team was misbuilt. We have no Hedman or Doughty or Chara back there and quite frankly I think Zaitsev is junk and we need an upgrade on Gardiner...period.
