The "We have competent management" appreciation thread

[Kamiccolo]

Can we take a moment and praise your favorite deity that we no longer need to worry when there is a rumor involving the leafs making a deal, when the draft approaches, or in days like today?

Before, I was waiting for a Peter Holland move. Don't get me wrong, he's a great bottom 6er, but we paid a 2nd for him.

Today, I feel comfortable with whatever Lou, Shanny, Hunter, and Dubas decide to do, from signings, to trades, to draft picks. I simply have faith that they will not steer us wrong.

Praise the shanaplan!

Click to read more...

 

[GBLeaf]

I concur.

Feel very positive about what these guys have done and are continuing to do. Feels like the hockey club is in good hands.

 

[Faltorvo]

Can we take a moment and praise your favorite deity that we no longer need to worry when there is a rumor involving the leafs making a deal, when the draft approaches, or in days like today?

Before, I was waiting for a Peter Holland move. Don't get me wrong, he's a great bottom 6er, but we paid a 2nd for him.

Today, I feel comfortable with whatever Lou, Shanny, Hunter, and Dubas decide to do, from signings, to trades, to draft picks. I simply have faith that they will not steer us wrong.

Praise the shanaplan!

They have done the impossible

they have made me a happy leafs fan.

I actually feel calm now, when i go to read any news about them.

Leafs nation has been released from Guantanamo Bay detention camp

 

[Scratch]

I have had hope in the past due to what the Leafs had on the ice, 93-95... and again from 99-2002, but there was always this feeling of "Now or never attached to those teams. Turned out to be NEVER.

For the first time in 45 yrs, I have a feeling of hope that extends through all levels of management.

I am a very happy Leafs fan currently because I see what is being built.

 

[ShaneFalco]

I feel like we're headed in the right direction for once, but will reserve judgement until we see results

But getting rid of Clarkson, Phaneuf, Robidas (to an extent) - genius

 

[MJ65]

Can't we just combine all the appreciation threads in to one or else this board is going to be full of appreciation threads

 

[The Man in White]

This is how I felt when AA took over from Ricciardi, cleared contracts (Rios, Wells) and started stocking the minors with prospects. Good times lie ahead.

 

[GordieHoweHatTrick]

Leafs dumped 20.25m dollars worth of contracts and only retained 1.2m. In 2 years the stench will have cleared entirely after Cowen, Greening & Michalek are off the books and the Leafs begin trending up. I have 100% faith in this management group.

 

[dubey]

 

[SprDaVE]

Trading for picks is the easy part, more or less. There's a lot more to do and the hardest is to come.

Solid start though for sure. Lot's of picks and a process that makes sense.

 

[X66]

While it's definitely too early to label the management a success, it's hard not to like what they've done in the last year.

There is no guaranteed way to building a contender/successful team because there is still that element of luck involved; but IN SAYING THAT, IMO, the best way to build those teams is through stock piling picks and managing your assets smartly.

So far, we're seeing both.

 

[BraveCanadian]

Oh come on.. we won't know for a few years if they are competent or not.

I love that they are finally going to go the draft route in Toronto but lets not pretend it takes some sort of genius to fire-sale everything and stockpile picks.

The real trick is turning those picks into well developed NHL players 3-5 years down the road.

 

[AngryScotsman]

Losing has never felt so good...

 

[613Leafer]

Its the first management group we've had through the entire lockout tenure that could see beyond the next few months.

JFJ, Burke, and Nonis all desperately flailed around spinning their wheels trying to make the playoffs every season at all costs. Regularly letting valuable pending UFAs walk for zero value, regularly trading picks and in some cases very high picks for NHLers that didn't remotely remotely remotely put us close to contention, etc.

These guys have VISION. They are aggressively restructuring our long-term cap, our farm system, etc. This year we're struggling, next year we'll very likely struggle, but the future looks very bright. And guess what? Had we stuck with Kessel, Phaneuf, etc, we would have struggled anyways! So short-term, we're barely doing anyworse. We finished bottom 10 in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2015 with Kessel/Phaneuf. Great vision Burke/Nonis, glad you're gone.

 

[bobbyflex]

Competent management for the first time in over 15 years. Feels good mang. I have hope again

 

[Macallan18]

Oh come on.. we won't know for a few years if they are competent or not.

I love that they are finally going to go the draft route in Toronto but lets not pretend it takes some sort of genius to fire-sale everything and stockpile picks.

The real trick is turning those picks into well developed NHL players 3-5 years down the road.

I respectfully disagree.
Obviously there are several components to being competent, and a key one is asset management. Management is showing that now, finally, they understand cap management. Shows up in the Phaneuf trade, which also is allowing us to gain assets for our cap space. And dealing all our UFA's we signed just for the purpose.
We have to be able to judge talent and develop assets as well. From the last draft, Hunter showed excellent asset management in trading down the Nashville first rounder. And from early indications, knocked the ball out of the park with the picks that were made.
Of course, now we have to develop the talent intelligently, but does anyone doubt this with the Marlies and Keefe?
Now there is always an element of luck involved.
But I think so far management deserves an A+.

 

[BraveCanadian]

I respectfully disagree.
Obviously there are several components to being competent, and a key one is asset management. Management is showing that now, finally, they understand cap management. Shows up in the Phaneuf trade, which also is allowing us to gain assets for our cap space. And dealing all our UFA's we signed just for the purpose.
We have to be able to judge talent and develop assets as well. From the last draft, Hunter showed excellent asset management in trading down the Nashville first rounder. And from early indications, knocked the ball out of the park with the picks that were made.
Of course, now we have to develop the talent intelligently, but does anyone doubt this with the Marlies and Keefe?
Now there is always an element of luck involved.
But I think so far management deserves an A+.

This is the only important part in what you just said.

The rest is just a fire sale for picks like anyone who is tanking out.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to manage a hockey team.

 

[613Leafer]

Oh come on.. we won't know for a few years if they are competent or not.

I love that they are finally going to go the draft route in Toronto but lets not pretend it takes some sort of genius to fire-sale everything and stockpile picks.

The real trick is turning those picks into well developed NHL players 3-5 years down the road.

Might not take a genius, but it's been blatantly obvious for 10 years that the Leafs needed to aggressively rebuild through the draft, and they're the first ones to do it.

Plus when you judge many of the moves, they look like good value moves. Signing Babcock? Great! Polak for two 2nds? Great! Phaneuf moved with zero salary retained? Great! etc.

Sure, they still need to draft well and not blow their load in free agency on useless depth players (e.g. Clarkson/Komi type of contracts), but so far everything they've done indicates they're doing a great job.

 

[BraveCanadian]

Might not take a genius, but it's been blatantly obvious for 10 years that the Leafs needed to aggressively rebuild through the draft, and they're the first ones to do it.

It was obvious to previous management as well but ownership and ego (Burke) didn't let them do it.

 

[Kubus]

I wonder how people will feel next season when we are in a similar situation. There is just no way this team is going to be better next season...we got another 3-5 years to go.

 

[BraveCanadian]

I wonder how people will feel next season when we are in a similar situation. There is just no way this team is going to be better next season...we got another 3-5 years to go.

Right.. and that is *if* the picks pan out and are developed well.

 

[Kubus]

Right.. and that is *if* the picks pan out and are developed well.

Very true. I know people love Hunter but we really haven't seen how good he really is...we won't for another 3+ years.

 

[hotpaws]

I wonder how people will feel next season when we are in a similar situation. There is just no way this team is going to be better next season...we got another 3-5 years to go.

They'll feel much better than endlessly trying to build around kessel/Phaneuf and still winding up in the bottom 5.

 

[leafs in five]

i'm pretty giddy about it but on reflection it was kind of incredible to bear witness to the richest team in the league being run by guys like Nonis, Poulin, Loiselle who hadn't the foggiest clue. like it was easy to observe and think, i could do better than these guys. which is kind of horrible because the team stinks and are no fun to watch but following the rumour mill and the transactions and radio interviews that revealed more and more the extent of the ignorance of everybody involved with running the team was a lot of fun, or at least really interesting.

it reminds me of this article from a few years back about how many great writers came to some degree of prominence through writing about how crummy the Knicks were and how poorly they were run http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/08/sports/basketball/posting-the-pain-away.html.

it seems that when a lot of people watch a really badly run team the result is tons of complaining obviously but also a lot of really funny and entertaining and illuminating documentation and analysis of the problems. in the Leafs case it was even better in 2013 for a few reasons but mostly in my opinion because 1) the technology and data for forming opinions beyond wins and losses and goals and whatever else was becoming much more widely available and distributed, and understood maybe to a lesser degree; and 2) there was still a huge faction of Leafs fans that believed that the stuff in #1 was all nonsense and that the team was good and would only get better. whereas basically everyone that followed the Knicks agreed they were terrible and terribly run.

which goes to my next point which is that another result of competent management has been the end of the HF Leafs civil war between the 'watch the game,' 'winning team' tribe and the spreadsheet watching basement bloggers which has given way to a pretty bland detente and basically a consensus of optimism and approval. except when discussing Kadri/Bozak i suppose but then those threads usually get locked in part because people are so eager to have enthusiastic disagreements again.

but back to the blog/media thing, during peak Nonis (Grabo buyout to Polak trade) Mirtle was never better to read, Poulin was telling ML hotstove that the Leafs allowed so many shots by design as a strategy to suppress shot quality, and the ASSISTANT GM of the team that we all agree is competently run (or, super competently run in my opinion) was writing blog posts at Leafs Nation about how incompetent the guys that ran the Leafs were. which is incredible but it also makes me feel bad about my own life in ways i don't really care to reflect too deeply on. so maybe i don't appreciate competent management after all?

 

[Pyromaniac3]

I wonder how people will feel next season when we are in a similar situation. There is just no way this team is going to be better next season...we got another 3-5 years to go.

I honestly expect Leafs to compete for playoffs next season. Though I don't expect them to win, but neither did I expect them to be this good this season. Nylander+Marner+this year's pick is very good addition to the team and its not like we don't have Kadri and JVR. 3-5 years is extremely pessimistic view of the future.