If we want to play a little historical timeline here and benchmark the Leafs window to historical teams, we are 7 years into the Matthews era post 2016 draft.
The Edmonton Oilers entered the league in 1979-80. It would already be 1986 and they would be in their failed season to threepeat.
Mario Lemieux was drafted in 1984, so 7 years out would be 1991, their first cup run.
Sidney Crosby was drafted in 2005, and it would already be 2012, where they went to a cup finals and won a cup in 2008 and 2009.
The Kane and Toews Hawks started in 2007-08 after the Kane draft. It would be 2014 already and they would have already won 2 of their 3 cups with one more to come next year by Year 7.
The Stamkos Hedman project in Tampa teamed up in 2009-10 second year of Stamkos and rookie year for Hedman. It would already be 2016. They have no cups at this point but they would have gone to the finals the year before and Vasi, Kucherov, Point, Palat would all be pushing up through the farm system.
Drew Doughty’s Kings started in 2008-09 with some pieces like Kopitar and Quick already in place. It would be 2015 and the Kings would already be in decline, post championship era by Year 7 of Doughty.
If the Matthews and Marner era measured up to these kind of teams, we would have seen something special happen by now. It doesn’t have to be multiple cups but encouraging signs of growth, deep runs. Playoff maturity would be a minimum.