Maple Leafs facing dilemma
Babcock has team improving, but landing high draft pick is crucial to the rebuild
TORONTO — The contradictory tightrope walk for Mike Babcock and the Maple Leafs is this: How to get better in the second half and not move up in the standings.
That is the confounding juggling act for a team more about future than present, with a trade deadline looming in two months and on-ice progress moving quicker than anyone anticipated.
What the Leafs can’t do is put themselves in a position to be out of the running to draft an Auston Matthews or a Jesse Puljujarvi, even in the new NHL Draft format, where there are more opportunities with the first three picks determined by lottery, instead of just the first pick.
The move from competitive to contender won’t take place until the Leafs can significantly upgrade the roster. And as the last six Stanley Cup champions have proven, you can’t win a title without an ‘A’ defenceman, a stud centreman and a strong goaltender.
Chicago has Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, Corey Crawford and three Cups. Los Angeles has Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and Jonathan Quick. The Bruins had Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara and Tim Thomas when they won.
The Leafs have no ‘A’ centreman, no goaltender to build around, and maybe a No. 1 defenceman in Morgan Rielly, and that’s still to be determined. This upcoming draft should be huge for them, unless the lottery or the standings somehow push them in the wrong direction.
THIS AND THAT
Rielly doesn’t get the power play time he deserves, but how’s this for a list? The 15 even-strength points he has scored as a defenceman are better than Doughty, P.K. Subban, Shea Weber, Roman Josi, Ryan Suter, Victor Hedman, Alex Pietrangelo and Brent Seabrook have managed to date this season. Rielly has to be part of the young North American team for the World Cup ... You want a template for building teams? How about following the Dale Tallon model. He built the essence of the Chicago Blackhawks before moving to Florida.
Now the Panthers are in first place and developing nicely. That’s what Lou Lamoriello needs to do with the Maple Leafs ... Calendar year, 2015: Was there a better NHL forward than Jamie Benn? ... I don’t know about you, but if William Nylander was my prize prospect and he got his head messed up at the world junior championship, I’d have him on the first airplane home. I’d want my doctors checking him out ... And I wonder: would the Tampa Bay Lightning have won the Stanley Cup last June if they had Seth Jones in their lineup instead of Jonathan Drouin? Drouin was sent to the minors Saturday ... Phil Kessel averaged more than 22 power play points a year with the Leafs. In Pittsburgh, he’s on pace for half that many.
Wonder why Kessel fit in so well with Marc Savard in Boston, but not with Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin with the Penguins.
SCENE AND HEARD
A problem from the beginning in Philadelphia: How do you trust any adult named Chip? ... The Miami Dolphins remind me of the Leafs. If they’re not replacing their coach or general manager every year, they’re certainly talking about it annually. And instead of talking 1967, they’re forever referencing 1972 ... Don’t know about you but I wanted the Carolina Panthers to go 16-0 ... While watching the pure spectacle that was the Winter Classic on Thursday, I couldn’t help but think: How is the NHL going to replace recently departed COO John Collins? And what a legacy he has left behind for the league ... Fenway Park. Yankee Stadium. Wrigley Field. The Big House. BMO Field. One of these things is not like the other ... My hope for 2016 — a kinder, gentler, less angry and far less anonymous Twitter ... My belief for 2016: This is the year the Raptors will win their first best-of-seven NBA playoff series ... Champions for the year: Los Angeles Kings in the NHL; Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Grey Cup; Arizona Cardinals, Super Bowl; New York Yankees, World Series.
And if I get one of them right, I’m beating the odds.
AND ANOTHER THING
Babcock’s greatest triumph thus far: the transformation of Jake Gardiner from mindless gambler to sound NHL defenceman ... Interesting times for Ken Holland, the Red Wings GM who pushed 3-on-3 overtime through and drafted Dylan Larkin.
Still not sure who misses the playoffs in the East. Ottawa and Tampa Bay should make it, which means who misses out? ... Dmytro Timashov, the Ukrainian-sounding Swede drafted by the Leafs, is scoring at a 150-point pace in the Quebec junior league and has been the most impressive Toronto draft pick at the world junior ... If you don’t like Christian McCaffrey, you don’t like football. He has scored touchdowns this season passing the ball, running it, receiving it, and with both kickoff and punt returns. And he must have a brain — he’s doing it for Stanford ... If you look at Zdeno Chara, in helmet, with all that eye black on, he looks like a super hero.
A Leaf disappointment: I thought a healthy Joffrey Lupul would be more effective than he has been ... Twenty four years ago Saturday, Cliff Fletcher made one of the two greatest trades of his career.
He acquired Doug Gilmour from the Calgary Flames in a multi-player transaction.
In his time as GM in Toronto and Calgary, Fletcher traded for Hall of Famers Gilmour, Mats Sundin, Joey Mullen, Glenn Anderson, Grant Fuhr and Mike Gartner, among others.
His biggest regrets: trading away Brett Hull and Alex Steen ... Happy birthday to Bobby Hull (77), Mike Walton (71), Rick MacLeish (66), Eli Manning (35), Jim Ross (64), Angela Ruggiero (36) and Drake Berehowsky (44) ... And hey, whatever became of Bobby Bassen?