Very interesting responses in this thread.... Some people think we are already 3 years into the rebuild?
No, we are NOT!
Pretty much any rebuilding team would probably have a guy like Nylander/Rielly. A team doesn't decide to rebuild just after 1 season of failure. It is likely that team had a failed season or two before they decided to rebuild. And hence, prospects like Nylander/Rielly. So, let us not act like this is not the 0th year of rebuild. Because it is!
I always thought media were idiots because they questioned if Leafs Nation was patient enough to go through a rebuild. And now, after seeing the responses here, their stance does make sense.
Look at any top teams build - that means not selectively starting halfway through, but actually going back to where they started accumulating the pieces that makes them good today. It's an average of about 12 years.
LA: 2000 - Visnovsky (turned into Stoll and Greene); 2003 - Brown; 2005 - Kopitar & Quick; 2007 - Simmonds (used with Schenn to get Richards); 2008 - Doughty.
Chicago: (After a complete fail attempt with guys like Mark Bell and Ethan Moreau) - 2002 - Keith, Burish, Wizeneiwski; 2003 - Seabrook, Crawford, Buf; 2004 - Bolland, Bickell, Brouwer; 2005 - Hjalmarsson; 2006 - Toews; 2007 - Kane
Toronto: 2008 - Schenn (JVR); 2009 - Kadri; 2011 - Percy?; 2012 - Reilly, Finn, Brown; 2013 - Gauthier, Johnson; 2014 - Nylander; 2015 - McDavid / Strome / Marner + Roy / Bittner / <name here> ;
Not counting trades for Bernier, potentially Gardiner (most D take a long time), and the returns on Kessel, Bozak, and Phaneuf.
We not starting on empty - add a solid 6 - 9 good prospects in drafting and trades over the next two summers, and we'll be ready to start improving and chasing the playoffs as of the centential year.