Is anyone more out of touch than Cherry?
Brown is a rookie in the AHL and one of our very few promising young prospects. He's having a fantastic season in the Marlies who are pushing hard for that 8th playoff spot after a very bad start to the season. What is going to be better for Brown's development - leading the Marlies to the playoff or playing 8 minutes a night on one of the worst/most dysfunctional teams in the NHL?
It is obvious that Brown is much more important to this team's future than Bailey (at this point anyways). Bailey can turn out to be absolutely nothing, but he may turn into a find. The only way to be able to have the opportunity to know is by doing exactly what the Leafs did. This is how the NHL works.
Furthermore, with regards to the Leafs not drafting an CHL players and being "in love" with college players, let's take a look at the last 5 Leafs drafts.
CHL Players
Valiev
Gauthier
Verhaeghe
Bibeau
Rielly
Finn
Brown
Rupert
Percy
Leivo
Broll
Sparks
Ross
McKegg
Carrick
Nicholls
Out of the last 33 picks, the Leafs have chosen 16 from the CHL.
I'm all for being passionate about being Canadian but Cherry needs to do some research before speaking. There are other areas of the world producing great players (i.e. Sweden) and the Leafs have done a pretty phenomenal job of drafting out of Sweden in those 5 years as well.
P.S. The two players Cherry says he 'read' that the Leafs are looking at out of Minnesota-Duluth (NCAA) are Leafs draft picks (Cameranesi and Toninato). Wake up big guy.