Kin
New member
BlueWhiteBlood said:I don't think we can compare the Leafs way with Chicago, without looking at what the landscape was when they were building their respective teams. Of course Kane and Toews would make a killing today if they hit the market, so would Kessel. Kessel's contract came up a year before those two, don't worry Chicago will pay through the nose next season for them.
Again, I think you're missing the point of the comparison. Yes, Chicago will have to pay those two more money when they negotiate with them next year and that will have cap implications. Maybe to the point where, like Pittsburgh, Chicago has to start making hard choices in terms of managing their depth.
But even if that's the case, they've already gotten 5 seasons from both of them where the team was a legit Stanley Cup contender and they were coming in at below market value which is a crucial element to how their team was built. Even if the Leafs become a legitimate cup contender next year, which we all agree is a longshot, then the Leafs will have gotten no years like that out of Kessel and Phaneuf which has a significant impact on their ability to add depth but makes it virtually impossible to add the elite players we're talking about unless you can get them signed to under market value deals which essentially rules out the UFA process.
BlueWhiteBlood said:The point I was trying to get to before was simply that the Leafs aren't in as bad a situation as some believe IMO, certainly not in a position to destroy the last few years of asset accumulation. There's more than one way to skin a cat, the Rangers are in the finals and they haven't really been "traditional" with their rebuild/ retool or whatever.
Right, and the point I've been trying to make is that the alternative avenues to the traditional rebuild are also ones where the Leafs face significant challenges because of a fairly poor accumulation of assets and bad cap management. The Rangers are where they are right now in large part because of their ability to make big trades like the St. Louis/Nash deals and sign big free agents which are hard to do if you don't manage the cap well.
But even then just making a cup finals, while great, isn't really indicative of building lasting success. Like my reference to the 2009-2010 Flyers, if your aim is just to build a team that can pull off some surprising series wins one year you're not really trying to build anything particularly noteworthy. The reason people are pointing to teams like the Kings and Blackhawks as models for team building is because they've constructed teams that are capable of being strong contenders for the cup based on the talent they have year-in and year-out which is pretty clearly the best way to eventually see a cup winner.