Griff83 wrote:You also need to get lucky.
How good would the rebuild look right now if....
A.) We didnt win the lottery (I actuly think we had the worst odds of the 3 remaining teams when the last ball was drawn). We could have easily ended up with the #3 pick and right now could have Jesse Puljujarvi instead of Auston Matthews.
B.) The Ariozona Coyotes selected Marner at #3 instead of Dylan Strome. Now rumour has it we would have went with Provorov or Werenski. Now both fill a need but to me Marner's upside is the highest out of the the 3.
C.) The Vancouver Canucks OR Carolina Hurricanes had selected Nylander at #6/7 and we would be left with Virtanen, Fluery, Ehlers (who isnt a massive downgrade from Nylander) or Nick Ritchie.
We ended up most likely with the best case scenario there but we could have easily been looking at Puljujarvi/Dubois, Provorov/Werenski and Ehlers. Now that is a nice collection of young talent but cant hold a candle to Matthews, Marner and Nylander.
Of course you need to be lucky when it comes to building a team in sports, but the thing is you need good management, good scouting and good coaching too and the Leafs for the first time in a very long time have all three. That is the big difference here that is making the turn around be so quickly rather than taking many years although we'll have to see if there won't be some decline next year because alot of things went right for us this year.
Also consider this:
A) Yes we had the worst odds of the three remaining teams for the first overall even though we had the best odds going in. Sure we were lucky there, but consider the previous year where we had the best odds of the four remaining teams and we ended up staying at fourth and losing out on McDavid. So luck goes both ways. It didn't work out for us in 2015, but it did work out for us in 2016.
B) From what I've read it seemed like the Leafs were willing to trade the #4 for the Jackets #8 and other picks but then ultimately CBJ decided against it. If that trade went through as much as I love Marner, maybe that would've turned out even better for the Leafs because we get a top pairing defenseman in Provorov or Werenski and also some extra picks in the 2nd round. Imagine how much nicer the Leafs defense looks with
Rielly-Provorov/Werenski
Gardiner-Zaitzev
As our top 4. Marner could become our Kane, but would you rather have Patrick Kane or would you rather have a Duncan Keith or Drew Doughty on the Leafs right now? I'm betting most people would choose Keith/Doughty over Kane. Heck with hindsight being 20/20 maybe we should've just taken Provorov/Werenski at the four spot anyways.
C) Nothing wrong with the Leafs taking Ehlers and some people might even think he's abit better than Nylander, but both are pretty close right now.
And also Matthews, Marner and Nylander are a great group, but best case scenario would've been McDavid, Werenski/Provorov and Nylander/Ehlers. As much as I love our current group, I'd much rather have superstar forward, top pairing/potential franchaise defenseman and top line winger.