Fans can dare to dream — Cup really is within reach

For the third time in a quarter-century, the level of scrutiny and intensity when the Maple Leafs begin training camp next month will be heightened to a level befitting a true Stanley Cup contender. As it should be. That’s not to say there aren’t true Leaf believers who imagine every September that their team is set to win it all. But only rarely in modern team history has this had any basis in reality.

Back in 1993, the Leafs were coming off a thrilling seven-game loss in the Clarence Campbell Conference final to the Los Angeles Kings, a series punctuated by Wayne Gretzky’s sublime fivepoint performance in the deciding seventh game.

With Pat Burns at the helm, the Leafs arrived in camp the following September with virtually no changes. They won a record 10 consecutive games to start the season, driving Cup hysteria to new heights. Ultimately, that team made it to the conference final again, but lost in five painful games to the Vancouver Canucks.

Eight years later, after the club had plunged all the way to the bottom rungs of the NHL and then started back upwards again, that kind of optimism returned, fuelled by persuasive facts.

This time, it was based on an overhauled roster. Gary Roberts and Shayne Corson had been signed as free agents in the summer of 2000, and in the 2001 off-season the Leafs did even more. Alex Mogilny was signed to a $22million free-agent deal (all dollars U.S.) coming off a 43-goal season in New Jersey. Centres Robert Reichel and Travis Green, and one-time Legion of Doom winger Mikael Renberg, were acquired through trades.

The team that assembled for camp in 2001 was the best money could buy.

Mats Sundin had signed a six-year contract that eventually paid him $9 million per season, more than the entire payroll of the Leafs or Kings back in ’93.

That Leaf team knocked off the Islanders and Senators in the first two rounds. Against a 91-point Carolina team, the Leafs again seemed poised to advance to the Cup final, particularly when Sundin returned from a fractured wrist. But again, they fell short.

Toronto is often described by outsiders as a delusional hockey town where a parade is planned after a two-game winning streak in January. But coming out of training camp in ’93 and ’01, those were good Leafs teams that made it to the final four. It wasn’t just hype. Which brings us to now. As the final lazy, hazy days of August pass, with three weeks to Leaf medicals and six weeks to the season opener, a generally unsuccessful summer season by the GTA’s professional teams has created a lull soon to be filled for many by the return of hockey.

This is a young Leaf team, very different from the ’93 or ’01 squads that created such a buzz. Those were teams built by heavy spending on player salaries and a short-term strategy. By contrast, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment during the Brendan Shanahan years has focused on using its financial strength elsewhere — such as coaching (Mike Bab- cock), strategically absorbing bad contracts from other clubs and building a strong minorleague operation.

There has been a fair amount of off-season change, unlike ’93, with mainstays James van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak and Leo Komarov heading elsewhere.

Appetite for a winner in Toronto is greater than ever

There’s also been a major off-season free-agent signing from a New York-area team, like Mogilny in ’01. This time it’s John Tavares from the Islanders.

So there are some comparisons. In general, however, the NHL has changed so dramatically that it’s hard to compare the three Leaf teams — ’93, ’01 and ’18 — beyond what is believed to be their potential to win a Cup.

The GTA has changed too, of course, but if anything there seems to be a greater appetite than ever for a championship run. This is a hockey project that began with Shanahan’s hiring in 2014, and fans have been able to watch it step-bystep, with a 100-point team built on several years of losing.

Steven Stamkos wouldn’t come and join the party, but Tavares did, inspired by his childhood love of the Leafs and persuaded that the organization is poised to win.

This is a progressive franchise built for sustainability, a club looking at every possible avenue to success, as demonstrated by this week’s intriguing decision to add two women, Hayley Wickenheiser and Noelle Needham, to the hockey staff. The AHL Marlies won the Calder Cup and that team is expected to donate several players to the parent team this fall. The defence is young and fast, and the June draft on its own supplied more evidence that speed on the back end is how this team will be developed, not someone’s 1985 notion of what an NHL defenceman should look like.

So as the Leafs are perceived as getting closer to the Cup, just as was the case in ’93 and ’01, only the sentiment in the city really remains the same. The methods being used are very different now, fitting the way the NHL and the hockey industry have changed.

This is a cutting-edge franchise.

For the third time in a generation, the Leafs appear ready to take a serious charge at trying to win it all. Many things could get in the way. The actual run people have been waiting for could still be a few seasons away. But it seems almost a certainty that some time soon, that run at the Cup is going to happen.