ONE THAT GOT AWAY
Toronto on the outs as sports gods banish supernova talent . . . to the Oilers?
McDammit. With a side of sighs.
The stars did not align — and neither did the balls — for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
This was to be expected, given that the Leafs, for all their wretchedness, were not quite awful enough this season to “merit” more than a 9.5 per cent chance at snatching the biggest prize to come down the draft chute in a generation. The odds were steep.
But still. Just once — just once — the sports gods might have smiled down on this benighted burg. For a change.
Connor McDavid, for his sins, will be an Edmonton Oiler, come the 2015-2016 NHL campaign. Presumably. Unless sad-sack Edmonton does something stupid on draft day, which is not entirely outside the realm of possibility.
That puts the supernova teen some 3,470 kilometres down the highway from the centre of the universe.
EDMONTON, for the love of God. Four No. 1 picks in six years, an embarrassment of riches. And yet the Oilers remain . . . embarrassing.
It was a one-for-three outcome for Toronto on Saturday: Raptors lost their opening game of the playoffs against Washington in OT. Jays rallied with a walkoff jack W over Atlanta in the 10th inning. And the Leafs came a cropper on the McDavid lottery sweepstakes as El Presidente Brendan Shanahan looked on dolefully, the good-luck shamrock on his lapel to no avail.
“It was a gift,” he told reporters afterwards. “I thought I would enlist whatever I had. I wasn’t going to leave anything at home.”
Didn’t budge the Leafs upwards, alas, in the newfangled weighted lottery. Fourth coming in and fourth going out, all the drama unfolding in about one minute at the TV studio where hockey executives had been sequestered, relieved of their cellphones, the countdown to Number One televised as “The Big Reveal,” on a 15-minute delay from live-time.
“We sat and watched the whole process,” said Shanahan. “Then we had to sit there and wait for it to get announced on TV before they’d let us leave.”
Only in Canada would this prologue to the NHL entry draft be a matter of national anxiety and anticipation, a la Celebrity Hockey Idol or Dancing With The Rookies.
Probably nowhere more so — from among the 14 non-playoff cities involved — than The Big Smoke, desperate for something hockey related to get whipped up about.
“Drama?” deadpanned Shanahan. “Drama? Here?”
So we’re on to Plan B, not that Shanahan has ever specifically deconstructed Plan A or any other blueprint going forward.
The default position is not so bad, of course. In fact, it’s indubitably dandy. While 18-year-old marquee stud McDavid — the stuff dreams are made of — got away Saturday night, Toronto will step up fourth to the podium in Sunrise, Fla., at the NHL entry draft, June 26-27.
McDavid, the pride of Newmarket — a confessed huge Leaf fan growing up — is stardom and northern Alberta bound, politely, perhaps sincerely, insisting he’s just fine with that; again, only as the obvious working premise at this moment.
“That would obviously be a dream come true,” said McDavid, of skating alongside a wonderful crop of young players the Oilers have assembled, decades removed from its Gretzky dynasty heyday. “That would be a great situation to step into.”
Polished in front of the cameras, with years in the developing spotlight behind him, touted as protege since sprout days.
But not really as cool as presented, as McDavid admitted, about watching the balls fall in a studio audience of three, with fellow draft hotshots Dylan Strome and Noah Hanifin. “That’s the fastest my heart’s ever beaten.”
Hearts broken in Buffalo, though, all those McDavid Sabre jerseys now headed for the trash bin. The NHL bottom-feeder franchise — to tank or not to tank, that was the question — had a 20-per-cent shot at the top pick but got shunted aside by Edmonton, which rose from third to first in the pecking order.
“When you have an 80-per-cent chance of losing something, you have to be ready for that and think that’s probably going to be the case and that was the case,” observed Buffalo GM Tim Murray, trying his best to put a positive spot on losing McDavid.
“This is two years of me coming up here. It’s a two-minute draw, I guess. One team is happy and the rest aren’t.” Oh cry me a river. That Sabres automatically get the second pick and that will likely be Boston U crackerjack centre Jack Eichel. Arizona Coyotes go third.
But this will be, as everyone agrees, a draft flush with “Next One” gems in the top-10 bracket. Surely not even the Leafs — so woeful on the talent assessment file over recent decades — can screw it up this time.
Think, fingers crossed, Strome: Manna from pivot heaven, Mississauga boy, the OHL scoring champion and McDavid teammate would be for the Leafs; a six-footthree centre in the Joe Thornton mold (his personal idol) once he fills out. He’d instantly solve Toronto’s problems down the middle, where no one has sparkled since Mats Sundin left town.
Strome’s brother Ryan currently plays for the New York Islanders and younger ’bro Matthew played for the Toronto Marlboros — this past week was selected by the Hamilton Bulldogs of the OHL.
But it could be Hanifin, the offensive defenceman who scored 23 points in 37 games as a freshman to Boston College; could be Lawson Crouse, the Kingston Frontenacs left winger. Shanahan wasn’t tipping his hand or his inclination.
Still and all — let’s be frank, if typically egomaniacal — the best Connor McDavid fit for the NHL would have been Toronto. A healthy uptrending Leaf franchise is good for the league, even though the blueand-white at this moment don’t have a coach, don’t have a GM, don’t have a scouting staff and don’t — the Shanahan bashers assert — have a clue. The boss torched just about everybody a week ago on Sunday Bloody Sunday, within hours of the Toronto season closing out with a whimper, ninth year in the past decade excluded from the playoffs. Yesterday’s news. Actually, literally, yesterday’s news was Connor McDavid, not destined for Toronto.
(And I won the media pool, drawing Edmonton.) Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.