Leafs Talk: Painful...but proud of the team of youngsters

[Dave98]

This upcoming draft is being regarded as the weakest since '99, the Patrik Stefan draft. Outside of the Sedins, Havlat, and eh... maybe even Tim Connolly, it was a pretty
atrocious first round.

But anyway

Don't know if anyone watched rookie tournament game vs the Blackhawks tonight.

6-3 win for the Leafs rookies.
Ross
Olden
McKegg
D'Amigo
Ryan
Gysbers

Rynnas was in goal and looked fairly solid except for a couple of weak goals by Beach and Morin.
Kadri was meh... I thought he looked pretty good in the 1st but then he started to try to do too much.

Mueller, McKegg, Olden, Gysbers, Ross, and D'Amigo all looked pretty good.

Barron Smith is a waste of a 7th round pick. This guy simply can not skate.

[Maxman]

detroit red wings, new jersey devils.

I would add the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche to the list.

Detroit Red Wings (I can't believe they are listed as a team that didn't suffer through bad year to draft high!)
Yzerman - drafted 4th overall
Shanahan - acquired from Hartford for Primeau (drafted 3rd overall by Detroit), Coffey (drafted 6th overall by Oilers) and a 1st round pick. Coffey was acquired for a package including Jimmy Carson who was acquired for a package including Joe Murphy who was a 1st overall pick by Detroit.
Federov - 74th overall
Lidstrom - 53rd overall
McCarty - 46th overall
Kozlov - 45th overall
Konstantinov - 221 overall
Lapointe - 10th overall
Dandeneault - 49th overall
Holmstrom - 257th overall
Osgood - 54th overall

Most of this team was drafted and developed by Detroit - although their early round draft record was horrible, they are given a lot of credit for late round drafting.

New Jersey Devils
Niedermeyer - drafted 3rd overall (with pick from Leafs)
Brodeur - 20th overall
Stevens - acquired as compensation for Blues signing Shanahan (Devils 2nd overall pick)
Guerin - 5th overall
MacLean - 6th overall
Lemieux - acquired from Habs for Sylvain Turgeon (#2 overall by Whalers, who was acquired by Devils for Verbeek - 43rd overall by Devils)
Richer - acquired from Habs for Melanson and Muller (2nd overall)
Holik - acquired from Hartdford for Sean Burke (24th overall) and Eric Enrich (32nd overall)
Rolston - 11th overall
Bryllin - 42nd overall
Daneyko - 18th overall
Driver - 108th overall

The core of this team was very much 1st and 2nd round picks from a team that sucked in Colorado and early on in Jersey (missed playoffs 11/13 years between 76 and 89)

Dallas Stars
Mike Modano - 1st overall
Derian Hatcher - 8th overall
Joe Nieuwendyk - acquired from Calgary for Jarome Iginla (drafted 11th overall by Dallas)
Jamie Langenbrunner - 35th overall
Lehtinen - 88th overall
Mattituck - 8th overall
Sydor - acquired from Kings for Churla and Zmolek (who was drafted 7th overall by Stars)
Zubov - acquired from NYR for Kevin Hatcher (who was drafted 17th overall by Washington).

Brett Hull - UFA
Ed Belfour - UFA

The seven seasons before Minnesota moved to Dallas, the team was never over .500!
Three seasons prior to winning the Cup, they missed the playoffs.
The core of their cup team was drafted or acquired by trade for high picks or players drafted as high picks. Key pieces were added as UFA’s when the core was in place.

Colorado Avalanche (Seriously?)
Sakic - 15th overall
Forsberg - acquired from Flyers for Eric Lindros (1st overall)
Kamensky - 129th overall
Lemieux - acquired from Islanders for Wendel Clark (acquired from leafs for Sundin - 1st overall)
Ozolinsh - acquired from San Jose (30th overall) for Owen Nolan (1st overall)
Young - (11th overall by Hartford) acquired from Pittsburgh for Bryan Fogarty (9th overall)
Dead marsh - 14th overall
Krupp - acquired from NYI for Ron Sutter and exchange of first round picks
Simon - acquired from Philly as part of Lindros deal (was drafted 25th overall)
Wolanin - acquired from NJD (3rd overall) for Peter Stastny
Ricci - acquired from Philly as part of Lindros deal (was drafted 4th overall)
Foote - 22nd overall
Leschychyn - 3rd overall
Lefebvre - acquired as part of Sundin for Clark trade
Keane and Roy - acquired from Montreal for Thibault (10th overall) and others

Tonnes of first round picks - some acquired through missing the playoffs in 6/8 years prior to moving, plus picks and prospects acquired for Lindros.


Overall, for the last 30+ years, its been proven that sucking, drafting, then trading/UFAs is the best way to make yourself a championship caliber team. The expansion teams (Florida, Columbus, Nashville, et al) have been hamstrung by having to be competitive to sell tickets, and never really sucking enough (ie. signing UFAs or making bad trades to try to buy quick success).

[Mr.Sea]

You're right. Drafting high is guaranteed to get you superstars.

Leschychyn - 3rd overall

[Mel Boracis]

Those high draft picks aren't even playing anymore. I think the point that was being made was that these teams remained competitive and even won the cup without sucking in recent years. On the flip side, there's teams that have sucked for 5+ years and aren't even contenders. Florida is now rebuilding...but from what exactly? To insist that there is only one way to build a contender is just plain short sighted. But put it this way: the standard 5-year suckage plan gives you 5 high draft picks. If Kadri turns out to be the real deal, then we have 2 5ths and 7th to show for our suckage. Plus, Burke brought in some college kids and Europeans to make up for the rest. That's his accelerated rebuilding process. I think all it's done is shave a couple years of suckage off. It's accelerated because he has more of a sense of what he has. Kadri is the perfect example of this. Everyone is expecting him to be THAT guy but we don't know. Maybe we won't even know this year. That was the rational behind the Kessel deal.

Anyways, enough with the Kessel-Seguin debate already. Both were high draft picks so the trade is about even. Is Seguin worth more than Kessel because he went 2nd overall. I can almost guarantee that Seguin wouldn't have gone 2nd in a draft that contained Toews, Backstrom, Johnson, Stall and Kessel.

[Nettles]

Every team has 1st round draft picks. That isn't exactly proof. I was referring more to the 2001 Colorado Avalanche anyways.

BUT if you look at that list, you'll notice how many of those players were aqcuired through trades. The Avs/Nordiques didn't suck between the early 90s to the post-salary cap era. Detroit and Dallas were good from before. Those teams used free agents and there was less restriction with trades.

Philadelphia lost the last cup barely....they haven't exactly had a tonne of top 10 draft picks from the last 5 years, in fact, van Riemsdyk has been their only top 10 since Pitkanen and that 2nd overall pick was actually acquired through a trade with Washington.

Also, teams like Columbus and Florida can keep drafting high but they won't win because their financial budget doesn't allow them to approach the $57 million or 59 million cap. And the Wings, Pens, and Hawks, were all almost at the cap along with other competing teams like NJ, Wsh, and Phi.

[aplayaz2000]

oooo baby, greg mckegg deserves a cookie

impressed me with his game play, muller not bad too, think kadri should keep his game simple... has potential to taylor hall the puck pass defence

jussi was great too, made some mistakes but it was his first NA game... not adjusted yet, hes a great prospect

eager to watch first preseason game

edit. D' Amigo, on USA world juniors for a reason, got skill

[Maxman]

You're right. Drafting high is guaranteed to get you superstars.

Leschychyn - 3rd overall

The draft isn't about getting superstars - its about getting the best pieces to the puzzle. Leschyschyn was a point a game d-man in his last year of junior. He became a very dependable stay-at-home top-4 d-man for 1033 NHL games. Would the Avs had been better off taking Roenick, Selanne or Brindamour - possibly - but those guys aren't d-men.

Chris Phillips was a first-overall pick. He is a very good stay-at home d-man. It happened to be a very weak draft year, but you take the best player available that fits what your team needs.

The reason why some of the players were acquired through trades was because the teams had the assets to trade (ie. Nolan, Sundin, Iginla, Murphy, Primeau, etc). If you don't have those high pick players to trade for the pieces you need, how do you acquire better players? Certainly not through college and european free agents!

[Luckyinfil]

The draft isn't about getting superstars - its about getting the best pieces to the puzzle. Leschyschyn was a point a game d-man in his last year of junior. He became a very dependable stay-at-home top-4 d-man for 1033 NHL games. Would the Avs had been better off taking Roenick, Selanne or Brindamour - possibly - but those guys aren't d-men.

Chris Phillips was a first-overall pick. He is a very good stay-at home d-man. It happened to be a very weak draft year, but you take the best player available that fits what your team needs.

The reason why some of the players were acquired through trades was because the teams had the assets to trade (ie. Nolan, Sundin, Iginla, Murphy, Primeau, etc). If you don't have those high pick players to trade for the pieces you need, how do you acquire better players? Certainly not through college and european free agents!

No, you take the best player available at the draft and then address your needs through free agency and trades.

[Nettles]

No the Avs philosophy, right now at least, is to draft the best possible player available at their pick and there are other teams that do the same.

Although I'm not sure if Joey Hishon was the best player available at 17th overall considering he was ranked outside the top 40.

[Nettles]

Lol Devils just got punished hard for breaking an originally non-existant rule and taking advantage of a loophole. Maybe they'll give the pick to Toronto.

[thelefteyeguy]

Lol Devils just got punished hard for breaking an originally non-existant rule and taking advantage of a loophole. Maybe they'll give the pick to Toronto.

man the Leafs need all the help they can get

[sarkispc]

yaaaay the Bobby Ryan rumours can finally end!!!

Bobby Ryan signs with Anaheim

[MrWizard]

Spoke too soon. Great quote from DownGoesBrown:

So apprently death knocked on Pat Burns' door this morning; Burns sent its ***** to the pressbox for not backchecking.

[phomp]

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2010/...ating%20couple


Good work Grabovski......

[thechampion116]

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2010/...ating%20couple


Good work Grabovski......

very good work. shows u how pathetic montreal fans are. It took them 6 months to cook up this story when the cops clearly identified that it was impossible to discern who did what (basically a drunken brawl) so charges couldn't be laid.

just an attempt at a get-rich quick scheme.

otherwise, grabo has been surprising at camp.