Will Winnipeg and/or Edmonton collapse to 30th place?
By
Mark Schadenberg
I
truly attempt to avoid writing articles about professional sports here, except
to point out some idiosyncrasies in such areas as playoff structures and draft
lotteries.
The
Toronto Maple Leafs as of today are 30th in the NHL standings, so if
the National Hockey League draft lottery was conducted today, the Leafs would
have exactly a 20.0% chance of nabbing Auston Matthews first overall.
In
my opinion, from closely watch both the OHL, CHL and world juniors, this year
features a draft deep of high-end talent to about No. 10 overall. However, and
it’s not an earth-shaking however, Matthews is by far the best available talent
– likely better than a Tyler or Taylor, but not as good as a McDavid.
The
problem with the Leafs is that in the past eight games they have lost in regulation
just twice, and they’ve earned four wins in their past five outings.
It
was nice to see William Nylander notch three points last night in a 5-2 victory
over Calgary, but as of Tuesday morning the Toronto squad is just one point
behind Winnipeg and two behind Edmonton. Also, Columbus and Vancouver are only
three points higher in the table of cellar-dwelling scraps. Yes, all seven
Canadian teams will likely miss the playoffs, but that’s a prose to ponder
another day.
Are
the Leafs trying to vacate last place? A story in today’s Toronto Star (See
link by columnist Dave Feschuk below) indicates just that.
“Fans are entitled to their own opinion, whether they want us to play
hard and lose by one and draft higher — that’s fine,” said Morgan Rielly, the
third-year defenceman. “But as players . . . we don’t want to be in last
place.”
Keep in mind, the MLSE shinny squad has missed the post-season tourney
10 of the last 11 seasons.
That folks is not mediocrity – it’s pathetic.
Instead
of gradually growing through the draft in the past 10 seasons, the Leafs have
actually slid farther down the rungs on the ladder.
You
have to be a fan of the Leafs to still follow their every move on the ice and on
the transaction wire. You have to be optimistic for the future with Nylander,
Mitch Marner, Connor Brown, Kasperi Kapanen, Nikita Soshnikov, Brendan Leipsic
and Travis Dermott. At the age of 23 I do not consider Zach Hyman among the
youth troops as he’s too old, but still a valuable member of the Leafs ranks
for the long term.
With
many injuries to deal with currently (James VanRiemsdyk, uncle Leo Komorov, Tyler
Bozak and others), the Leafs roster should be collapsing, but the winning
attitude of the AHL’s Toronto Marlies is now in the Leafs dress room, which is
both good and bad – terrific and troubling.
The
American Hockey League playoffs begin at the same time as the NHL post-season,
which means someone like William Nylander will not be able to play for Sweden
at the world championships in May as he will be attempting a long cup run –
marathon run to the Calder Cup.
Auston Matthews
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From
The Toronto Sun:
Forward Colin Greening on
the players' approach despite the losing season:
"You put the rankings
aside, you put the stats aside, and every single player in here plays for
pride. They want to win. You don't get to this point without taking pride in
what you do for a living. This is what we've done. Every one has done this
since we were five years old, so it's that innate ability to go out and play
every single night."
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
Don’t
get me wrong, I’m a Leafs fans and we in Leafs Nation should have confidence in
Brendan Shanahan, Lou Lamoriello, Mike Babcock, Mark Hunter, Kyle Dubas, Dave
Morrison and Scott Pellerin. The future is exciting, but it would be much more
exciting if Auston Matthews was in the mix of ingredients.
Auston
Matthews missed last year’s draft by just three days as his birthday is Sept.
17. (Last year, there was lots of hoopla about Jack Eichel at No 2 overall to
Buffalo but he too was a ‘late birthday’) With the Zurich Lions this season Matthews
had 46 points in 36 games and his Swiss pro team lost in the first round of their
playoffs, so even with factoring in the world juniors, Matthews certainly played
fewer than 70 games. Matthews is originally from Scottsdale, Arizona and played
two years in the U.S national development team program.
Other
obvious names for a possible Top 10 in the 2016 draft are:
Jesse
Puljujarvi (Finland)
Patrik
Laine (Finland)
Mathew
Tkachuk, London (U.S.)
Olli
Joulevi, London (Finland)
Jakub
Chychrun, Sarnia (U.S. / Canadian)
Alexander
Nylander, Mississauaga (Sweden)
Mike
McLeod, Mississauga (Canadian)
Julien
Gauthier, ValD’or (Canadian)
Pierre-Luc
Dubois, Cape Breton (Canadian)
Knights GM Basil McRae with Mathew Tkachuk
LINKS:
Full-Time Realtor; Part-Time Hockey Fan
Mark Schadenberg, Sales Representative
Senior Real Estate Specialist (SRES designation)
Royal LePage Triland Realty Brokerage
757 Dundas St, Woodstock
(519) 537-1553, cell or text
Email: mschadenberg@rogers.com
Twitter: markroyallepage
Facebook: Mark Schadenberg, Royal LePage Triland
Discussion . . . Direction . . . Determination . . .
Destination
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