Which makes it even less likely the picks in question would actually produce valuable NHLers at all, much less anyone who’d contribute in a meaningful way while Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner are in their 20s.
These picks won’t for a few years, but if the leafs had picks from 4 years ago that they drafted instead of trading would be right now.
That’s my point, you draft this year (and next, etc) so that 4-5 years from now you have those players, or you make the informed decision to trade them.
The leafs have traded way too many picks for nothing already. They went ‘all in’ a few times and failed. Have to stop doing that.
It’s an absolute tragedy and way bigger than hockey, but if they still had a prospect like Amirov and he was able to develop, he might be contributing right now.
Mind you, they didn’t trade him, but that’s another 1st round pick that isn’t a part of the team anymore.
You need to draft, tanev isn’t the last piece of the puzzle for a team who just needs a little pop to go over the top. He’s a useful player, but he’s not going to make the leafs a Stanley cup champion team.
They aren’t in a place to keep trading their picks. They f***ed that up already, they need to stay the course and draft for a couple years (they already don’t have the pick after this one).
This core doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt anymore, they need a couple good, deep runs to earn it back.
No more trading 1sts until these players prove they’re worth the investment