herman said:
I think well rounded teams take time to manifest.
I think, broadly speaking, this is true but it's true for a reason that undercuts a lot of what you're saying here. Namely, that trying to address team's needs via the UFA or trade market isn't actually a very good path especially when you're working with very limited cap space and a weak pool of trade-ready prospects.
I mean, we've gone over why free agency tends to be a bad use of cap dollars before but the side note of that is that trying to trade for the sort of players you'd ideally like to have to balance out a roster is similarly difficult if they're the kind of players who get overvalued on the trade market because they then tend to be likewise heavily valued(and therefore priced) by the teams you're looking to get.
This is why when you're long term strategizing how you're going to build a team you should probably try to draft players with varying skillsets in the hopes that you get different kinds of players who might balance out the strengths and weaknesses of your team.
As a sort of sidenote, this is also why I sometimes think that Dubas' whole "I've cracked the draft, I'm going to lean heavily into doing the very smart thing that other teams haven't learned" thing is a bit of a mistake because in addition to drafting players you'd like to see on your club one day I also think you want to be drafting players other teams value highly so you can use them in trades.
And so I think one thing fueling some of this frustration with Dubas' draft is that not only does he seem to again be investing very heavily in one specific area but when it's the area the team is already pretty good with, and the area he used basically the team's entire UFA budget to further supplement, it does not look like he actually appreciate that teams should be well balanced.
herman said:
I think this is a great point in general re: what helps you win. The not meaningless distinction (at least to me) is what can be taught/developed after the fact? What are the Leafs equipped to layer onto their picks with a decent success rate? This past draft seemed to emphasize skill, but also players who don't always need the puck on their sticks to contribute meaningfully.
Well, again, I'd say that this draft emphasized a very narrow definition of skill, the sort of which the team is very well stacked on and which is probably the easiest/cheapest thing to add in free agency, especially on the wings.
Because, you know, sort of undeniably the one thing the Leafs absolutely can't teach their prospects is how to grow taller.