The culture stinks......
Wrong GM
Wrong Coach
Best Player may very well be a prima donna
Best playmaker has an inferiority complex likely due to his upbringing
Captain has past his prime and can never hope to live up to his expectations
The guys that "grew up" in the organization have been jettisoned by GM because of poor cap management
At this point it would seem all they are left with is flawed "superstars", a few guys biding their time until free agency, and bunch of low cost mercenaries
oh, and Jason Spezza
egd27's post is exactly spot on, and let's remember how we got here:
Remember the "Shanaplan"? I don't know about anybody else, but I understood that to be a cultural mindset and structure similar to the Red Wings dynasty of the 90's and 2000's that made the playoffs every year and won a cup or four. They told us the way to implement that was GROW THE TEAM FROM BELOW, where you install this mindset from the development stages so players NATURALLY flow up to the big club and don't miss a beat because they've been groomed since draft day, and played TOGETHER during that period.
All of this seemed to be flowing pretty nicely, then we got a BIG boost... the #1 pick, and Matthews. Now we're really on our way, right? Then something happened - Tavares. This was NOT part of the "Shanaplan". Yes, most of us were excited at the prospect but good LORD that contract messed up everything the "Shanaplan" stood for. We got lots of assurances that both a) the fantastic young players we had were going to be signed to reasonable deals to maintain the overall plan (FALSE) and b) the cap would go up anyway so it's all fine (FALSE).
Now what have we been left with? We've maintained PART of the "Shanaplan" (have a core set of players to build around, sign older vets from winning systems on the back-end as needed) but the really important part - have role players that were groomed in the system and played together for years - has been completely obliterated. Brown, Hyman, Kadri, Kap, AJ, Leivo, Moore, Grundstrom, Zaitsev, Borgman even Marchment... all of these guys were supposed to feed up to the roster and be the key core of glue guys by now. Sure we probably couldn't have kept all of them even if Tavares never signed and we had reasonable contracts with the stars, but look at Tampa - their "support crew" barely changed for YEARS. Meanwhile we don't have one, at least one that can be maintained across seasons.
So the core queston, how to fix it? Ideally you have to get rid of at least one of the contracts, probably more than one. If we could get rid of Tavares that would be ideal, but I don't see how unless he retires. I'd be fine if we trade Marner but the big mistake (of course) was ever giving him that ridiculous deal. Everyone seems to want to get a "replacement" back for Marner but that simply isn't going to happen, there isn't any winger of his talent level available and you won't get a comparable center. Also the target should NOT be a replacement for Marner, it has to be a true #1 d-man, which is probably not obtainable (and thus you have to hope to draft one - something the Leafs don't try to do).
Dumping so much cash into the top 6 and letting the defense wither away might be the most colossally stupid thing Dubas has done, but here we are. All of the dynasties mentioned in this post had their stud d-man. Last year's additions of Brodie and Bogo were great and really gave me hope, but look now - Muzzin and Holl have regressed, Bogo skipped town and our young guys haven't been developed according to the "Shanaplan" because the team either rushed them or kept inserting foreign players in their place (who were subsequently given up on anyway).
So a more realistic take:
- Keep Marner with Tavares because it's the only way you're going to get production from him now.
- Trade or waive Ritchie, the guy is useless and always has been and he's a total anchor on everything they're doing (I imagine there's some cap reason they "can't" but I don't care, nothing will improve with him on the roster as far as I'm concerned. Find a way!).
- Keep Hutch on the Marlies forever, never look at him again. Only use young goalies as the emergency third, Hutch has never been consistent enough for the NHL and the team has no confidence in him at this point. If we're going to have mistakes let them be made by a developing guy.
- Trade Dermott, they've ruined him (for this team) in my opinion so try to get a more established "reliable" type from some team that wants a potential up-and-comer. Put that guy in.
- Put Lilly in, bench Holl.
- Bring up Semyonov (probably can't, this stupid f'ing cap stupidity), that's the guy who should be playing on the big club right now.
- Trade Kerfoot for a prospect or pick would be ideal, I don't hate his skills but he has never fit this team.
I think that's the only way this year. I obviously don't think those changes will get them near a cup but they could probably win a playoff round. The ugly part is next offseason is continued entropy as once again without one of the big contracts going away we just continue to lose guys (Rielly) with only "lesser" replacements able to come in.
