Toronto Maple Leafs will have several good options when they pick fourth in the NHL entry draft

source : nationalpost.com

Brendan Shanahan always knew it was going to be a long shot.

Will Connor McDavid be the saviour that turns around the struggling Oilers franchise?

The Toronto Maple Leafs president headed into Saturday night’s NHL Draft Lottery with only a 9.5% chance of winning the first-overall pick in this summer’s draft. So it was hardly a surprise, said Shanahan, that they did not “get the golden ticket.”

But it was hardly considered a loss. Unlike the Buffalo Sabres and Arizona Coyotes, who each moved down a spot in the draft order after the Edmonton Oilers won the draw and jumped from third to first, the Leafs held the No. 4 position.


That might not seem like much. But in a draft that is top-heavy with talent, it could be the difference between getting a potential franchise player or just a very good one.

“I’m happy we’re at four. There’s some good players there,” Shanahan said. “Obviously, there’s so much focus on the first couple of guys — and they’re fantastic players — but it’s a very deep draft.”

Now comes the question: Who will be available when the Leafs are picking?

We know Connor McDavid and Boston University centre Jack Eichel will be off the board after Edmonton and Buffalo make their selections. But it is anyone’s guess what the Coyotes will do next.


The two obvious options are Boston College defenceman Noah Hanifin and Erie Otters centre Dylan Strome. The likely scenario is that Arizona will take one and Toronto will take the other. But figuring out the order now depends on a variety of factors, such as team need and which player scouts believe will develop into the better long-term player.

NHL Central Scouting ranked Hanifin as the third-best North American skater in the draft. But the 6-foot-3 Strome, who is ranked fourth, led the Ontario Hockey League with 129 points in 68 games.
The Coyotes, who are in the early stages of a massive rebuild, already have a franchise defenceman in Oliver Ekman-Larsson and a drafted blueliner Brandon Gormley 13th overall in 2010. And while they have a bevy of forward prospects, such as wingers Max Domi, Anthony Duclair and Brendan Perlini, they are lacking a No. 1 centre.

The Leafs, who have William Nylander and Morgan Rielly as the cornerstones of their rebuild, could use all the help they can get.


“No one knows what’s going to happen on draft day,” Strome, who is from Mississauga, Ont., said on Saturday night. “I’m just looking forward to the whole process. Obviously people have their predictions and fans have things they say, but at the end of the day the one general manager that likes you is probably where you’re going to end up for a while. I’m just looking forward to making a team happy.”

“Obviously Toronto’s in a rebuilding stage right now,” said Hanifin, a native of Massachusetts. “If I were to be selected by them, it would be an honour to play with Morgan Rielly and guys like that.”
When asked if the Leafs planned on trying to move up in the draft to get the player they want, Shanahan was non-committal. “We’ll make that decision later,” he said.

Also being considered as a potential pick at No. 4 are London winger Mitch Marner and Kingston winger Lawson Crouse. But whomever is chosen, do not expect him to change the Leafs’ fortunes immediately. They might not even be in the Leafs lineup for another year or two.

“It really just all depends,” Shanahan said on whether the player they get at the No. 4 spot would be NHL ready. “It depends on who you get, it depends on whether or not they’re ready. I think you can’t have your mind made up. If somebody is going to develop the best while playing in the NHL and is ready to go then you have to leave that option open for them.

“If somebody needs more time, then that’s OK as well.”

NHL Draft 2015: A Look at Toronto Maple Leafs' Pick

source : bleacherreport.com

The NHL Draft Lottery is complete for this year, and the Toronto Maple Leafs will select at the No. 4 spot, as per NHL.com.

Obviously the Leafs would have loved to have won the lottery and had the No. 1 pick. But at least it was the Edmonton Oilers that won the lottery, a team that was already slotted to pick before the Leafs. Because the Oilers were ahead of the Leafs heading into the lottery, the Leafs did not get bumped down to the No. 5 spot.

While Connor McDavid will be an Edmonton Oiler and Jack Eichel seems destined to join the Buffalo Sabres, the draft order becomes much less clear after that.
Let's take a look at the most likely picks for the Toronto Maple Leafs who should get an excellent player at No. 4.

4. Mitch Marner, Centre, London Knights

Mitch Marner is not a large young man, but his game screams big-time talent. If Marner were two inches taller and weighed another 25 pounds, he would be in the conversation as a top-three pick.

Marner has great vision and explosive speed. He's capable of making great plays at break-neck speed. At 5'11" and 160 pounds, he may have to begin his career on the wing, but he has all the tools to be a No. 1 centre at the NHL level.
Marner earned 126 points in 63 games this season. He finished second in OHL scoring in 2014-15. He has to get stronger, but he has elite puck skills. Players that can put up big numbers at the NHL level are not easy to find.
Expect Marner to get a long look from the Leafs in the coming months.

3. Ivan Provorov, Defenceman, Brandon Wheat Kings

Some Leafs fans might not be interested in adding a defenceman, but Ivan Provorov could change their minds. 

Provorov could end up being the best defenceman out of this draft class. He is a great passer, a wonderful skater and an underrated competitor. Provorov makes the game look easy on most nights.
He's not huge at 6'1" and 200 pounds, but with his skill level, that should be absolutely no issue at the pro level.
Provorov has the toolkit to be a top-pairing defender. He would not be in Toronto in 2015-16, but with the Leafs focused on rebuilding, there's absolutely no need to rush him at all.

2. Noah Hanifin, Defenceman, Boston College

Noah Hanifin played most of his freshman year at Boston College as a 17-year-old. That alone is impressive, but earning 23 points in 37 games is eye-popping. He is 6'3" and over 200 pounds. He will get bigger.

Hanifin has a complete game. He's got good offensive instincts, but is an above-average defender in his own end. He's very agile and has great composure with the puck.

He has improved by leaps and bounds this year. That's a great sign for a young defender.
He isn't likely to make the jump to the NHL next season, but he is a lock to become an impact NHL defender.

1. Dylan Strome, Centre, Erie Otters

 

Dylan Strome has been playing in the shadow of Connor McDavid, but don't be fooled into thinking that Strome isn't a superb hockey player.

Strome is 6'3" and nearly 200 pounds. The Leafs must continue to add centres, and Strome would be a great pick for the organization. Strome finished with 129 points in the OHL, which earned him the scoring title.

He's got exceptional on-ice vision and anticipates the play extremely well. He also has great reach and can create something out of very little. He's creative and is one of those players that improves his linemates' play.

Strome is a sure bet to be a No. 1 centre at the NHL level. If he's available at No. 4 at the upcoming draft, the Leafs would be well served to select this talented pivot.

 

Can Leafs win McDavid lottery? Stranger things have happened: Cox

source : thestar.com

Connor McDavid shows off the hardware after winning gold with Canada at the world juniors. The NHL draft lottery is Saturday night and some lucky team will get the chance to draft the young superstar. The Leafs have a 9.5 per cent chance.

 They happen in sports, which is why the well-worn sport-imitates-life clichè became a clichè in the first place. They also happen outside of the arena sometimes, momentous strokes of fortune that alter the landscape for a team or sometimes an entire sport.

Hockey is no stranger to these, although game-changers for organizations come along a little less than you might think, at least in the NHL. Specifically, one player or one decision rarely turns the hockey world upside down, or massively alters the odds as to which club gets a leg up in the race for Lord Stanley’s chalice.

But it happens. Occasionally. To whit:

 

In March, 1960, a minor hockey organizer in Parry Sound named Anthony Gilchrist pointed the Maple Leafs in the direction of 12-year-old Bobby Orr. The Leafs could have signed him, locked him up under the rules that then existed. “Too young,” replied the Leafs, then run by Punch Imlach and about to embark on a decade-long run that would bring four Cups to Toronto.

Instead, the Bruins locked up the legendary Orr, arguably the greatest player ever to play the sport, and went from losers to champions inside a decade.

 

In 1970, Buffalo and Vancouver joined the league as expansion teams. To decide which team would get the first pick in the amateur draft and the right to select centre Gilbert Perreault of the Montreal Jr. Canadiens, the NHL decided to use a roulette wheel. After one spin, president Clarence Campbell thought the Canucks had won, but he was mistaken. The Sabres got Perreault, and five years later they were in the Stanley Cup final against Philly.

Perreault played 1,191 regular-season games, scored 512 goals and is in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Vancouver picked Dale Tallon, more famous and successful as a hockey executive than he was as a player.

 

In 1979, the WHA’s Indianapolis Racers held the contract of 18-year-old Wayne Gretzky, but owner Nelson Skalbania had a case of the shorts. He offered to sell Gretzky to Michael Gobuty, owner of the Winnipeg Jets. For a variety of reasons, including a negative assessment from his scouts, Gobuty passed. Peter Pocklington didn’t, and the Edmonton Oilers were able to keep Gretzky, who was never drafted, in the resulting merger with the NHL.

 

In December, 1995, Montreal head coach Mario Tremblay, in a bizarre choice never really explained, left goalie Patrick Roy in the Canadiens net against Detroit for nine goals against. When a humiliated Roy, who had led the Habs to a Cup two years earlier, was finally pulled, he leaned past Tremblay on the bench and told president Ron Corey he would never play for the Habs again.

Four days later, he was traded to Colorado in a lopsided deal. The Avalanche won the Cup the following spring, and again in 2001.

 

In July, 2005, the NHL held what is popularly referred to as the Sidney Crosby Lottery after a lockout wiped out the entire ’04-05 season. All 30 teams were assigned one, two or three balls, and the winning ball was plucked from a drum. Four teams — Pittsburgh, Columbus, Buffalo and the New York Rangers — had three balls, and the Penguins ball was selected. Recently bankrupt, Pittsburgh’s franchise was saved by getting Crosby.

Which brings us to Saturday and the 2015 NHL draft lottery, with 14 NHL clubs, including the Leafs, hoping fate tosses them a rose.

Like Orr, or Perreault, or Gretzky, or Roy, or Crosby, it seems pretty clear Connor McDavid is the same kind of universe-altering talent. Like Tallon in ’70 or Bobby Ryan in ’95, the second prize, Boston University centre Jack Eichel, is very highly regarded.

But most believe he’s just not McDavid.

So some team will be touched by kismet when the lottery is held Saturday night at Sportsnet’s Hockey Centre studio in the CBC building in downtown Toronto. Fourteen balls will be placed in a lottery machine, and four will be withdrawn randomly. The four-number series is matched against a chart that shows all possible combinations and — ta da! — some lucky team is the winner.

It could be last year’s Stanley Cup champions, the Los Angeles Kings. Or it could be the Sabres, who have the most eligible combinations and can only hope that 45 years after that lucky bounce on the roulette wheel, they get another.

And the Leafs? Well, it’s not about deserving anything, and surely hockey’s richest franchise no more deserves to win this lottery than Rob Ford (open Rob Ford's policard) deserves to be a director at the Hockey Hall of Fame.

But why not the Leafs this time, with this lottery? Why not give this suffering hockey city a break, 48 years after George Armstrong flipped a puck into an unguarded Montreal net to give the team its last Cup?

The Leafs’ chances of winning are less than 10 per cent, but Buffalo, which has the best odds, still has an 80 per cent chance of losing McDavid. You just get the feeling the Sabres won’t get their new star, that some other team — Arizona, Carolina, Edmonton — will get the nod from the gods.

Or the Leafs. Right now, they’re fourth in the draft order, and if they don’t win the lottery would either hold that spot on drop one place back to fifth. Even at No. 4 or No. 5, they’d end up with a strong young talent, a player like Boston College defenceman Noah Hanifin or Mississauga’s Dylan 

Strome, a teammate of McDavid’s in Erie.

Perhaps Leaf executive Mark Hunter, who drafted Mitch Marner for the London Knights and has watched him blossom into a scoring whiz, wouldn’t be able to resist Marner now. Or there’s Brandon defenceman Ivan Provorov, a Ray Bourque-like blueliner who landed in Manitoba from his native Russia after stops in Wilkes Barre, Pa., and Cedar Rapids, Mich.

All good. But not McDavid.

Imagine how he would change the landscape in Toronto after this train wreck of a season. McDavid is believed to be so good the Leafs’ burn-it-to-the-ground rebuilding strategy could immediately cease, and the opportunity to get much better quickly after a decade mostly spent in the wilderness would be at hand. This week’s Bloody Sunday, a day on which president Brendan Shanahan seemed to play whack-a-mole with hockey office employees, would suddenly seem more sensible, like it had been pre-ordained to prepare the organization for a new saviour.

Winning this lottery isn’t a reward that is earned, and as such, it seems quintessentially Leafian in design, the prize for a badly-run franchise that has everything but just can’t get it right, a team with legions of fans but no ability to put all other distractions aside and just focus on finding its way back to the winner’s circle.

McDavid might, just maybe, tighten that focus. He would be, if the projections are correct, the first true Leaf superstar since Frank Mahovlich, with no slight intended to Darryl Sittler, Borje Salming or even, briefly, Doug Gilmour. Beyond that, he’d also be the first Leaf all-star calibre player from the larger Toronto area since, well, Carl Brewer? Charlie Conacher?

Even with double-digit NHL championships over the decades, Toronto hasn’t traditionally been a team blessed with single incendiary talents. Montreal had The Rocket. Detroit had Gordie Howe. Chicago had Bobby Hull. Boston had Orr, the Canadiens got Guy Lafleur, the Islanders had Mike Bossy, Edmonton had Gretzky and twice-blessed Pittsburgh had Mario Lemieux.

When will it be Toronto’s turn? Maybe never.

But maybe Saturday.

Dear Toronto: Sorry to see you miss the playoffs - again. Love, Montreal

source : theglobeandmail.com

For a Montreal hockey fan, a perfect season includes beating the Boston Bruins in a seven-game playoff series – and seeing the Maple Leafs not qualify for the post-season.

This year, we won’t have the satisfaction of beating our preferred historic rival. But witnessing the meltdown of the NHL’s richest franchise in Canada’s most arrogant city fortunately remains as a source of fascination and pure joy.

When three men were charged under the “Trespass to Property Act” for having tossed their Maple Leafs jersey onto the ice of the Air Canada Center in January, a new level of comedy was reached.

So, just to be clear, does the law forbid you from ever dropping your Maple Leafs jersey in Ontario? 

That, most certainly, would explain why so many in the province continue to wear the blue and white, even when the team hasn’t managed to reach the playoffs nine times in the last 10 years – they’re just law-abiding citizens!

Some will argue that you can toss your jersey, but not on the ice during a game. But what about hats on the ice? Don’t they allow hat-throwing when a player scores three times? What is that, if not a clear violation of the Trespass to Property Act?

Freedom to toss apparel should not just be the domain of the happy. The disgruntled, humiliated and oppressed fan should also be protected under the Charter of Rights.

How a team so rich can be so consistently bad for so long is beyond understanding. Is it the nefarious impact of Don Cherry on the team philosophy? Who knows.

For a Montrealer, a much more mysterious observation, though, is the passiveness of the crowd. They cheer for a bunch of losers year after year, they come back to fill the arena, and they happily pay a big price to do so. This is not something I laugh at: There is something beautiful, almost tragic to this. Acceptance, forgiveness and love forever seems to be their philosophy.

Then a few dare. Ooooh! Jersey tossing! Enough violence, it has to stop, bring the police, send a strong message to the barbarians at the gates!

Don’t you understand, Torontonians? These people acted in despair to be banned from the Air Canada Center for one year – just like the compulsive gambler begs to be banned from the Casino. These fans are acting out to seek detox.

If the Canadiens were out of the playoffs nine times in 10 years, no jerseys would not be tossed; no law is needed to protect such a sacred piece of clothing. No, there would be riots, and mayor Denis Coderre would get involved,so long as it didn’t interrupt his tweeting about his favourite topic – the Canadiens!

Too many springtimes in Montreal without the Canadiens in the playoffs could easily become a matter of public health, if not of public security.

Fortunately, the Habs are in this year again. So, for a few weeks we will talk less about austerity, budget cuts, radicalization and pot holes. The level of crime will drop in the city. People of all origins will unite for a common cause. A shot of natural antidepressant has been injected to Montrealers.

How can Toronto live so well without it? Whatever the answer, let us be thankful for not being there again and again and mostly, for yet another exceptional year of entertainment, for us at the other end of the 401.

Merci Toronto.

What's a Leaf fan supposed to do during the Stanley Cup playoffs? A guide.

source : thestar.com

Everywhere you look, there are ex-Leafs in the playoffs. You can't watch Habs-Sens and feel good about yourself. Here's the Breakaway Guide to the Playoffs for a Leafs fan.

So you're a true blue Leafs fan and you want to watch the playoffs, but you need some guidance on who or what to root for.

Here's the Breakaway guide to the playoffs for a Leafs fan:

EASTERN CONFERENCE

MONTREAL CANADIENS vs OTTAWA SENATORS

Ex-Leafs involved: Clarke MacArthur, Ottawa Senators.

WHAT TO DO: Don't watch. Hopefully the Raptors are on. Or the Blue Jays. (Unlike Ottawa or Montreal, Toronto has more than one major league team. So there.)

NEW YORK RANGERS vs. PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

Ex-Leafs involved: Daniel Winnik, Penguins; Dominic Moore, Rangers.

WHAT TO DO: Cheer for the Penguins, and say things like "that Winnik can sure drive possession."

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING vs DETROIT RED WINGS

Ex-Leafs involved: None

WHAT TO DO: Root for the Lightning. They wear blue and white, so you can just imagine what it feels like. Besides, maybe if the Wings are eliminated, GM Ken Holland will be so mad he'll fire Mike Babcock and then..... and then..... Sigh.

WASHINGTON CAPITALS vs NEW YORK ISLANDERS

Ex-Leafs involved: Tim Gleason, Capitals; Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolay Kulemin, Islanders.

WHAT TO DO: Root for either team. Leafs are still paying Gleason and Grabovski, so it's almost like the Leafs are in the playoffs.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

VANCOUVER CANUCKS vs CALGARY FLAMES

Ex-Leafs involved: Joe Colborne, Matt Stajan, Flames.

WHAT TO DO: I know you hate the Canucks, but do you really want to see Brian Burke's quick rebuild in Calgary work (when the here didn't)?

ANAHEIM DUCKS vs WINNIPEG JETS

Ex-Leafs involved: Korbinian Holzer, Ducks; Lee Stempniak, Jiri Tlusty, Jay Harrison and coach Paul Maurice, Jets.

WHAT TO DO: A cornucopia of under-achieving ex-Leafs. The Jets are the only other team to wear a maple leaf on their jersey, so the answer is obvious: Anaheim. Just kidding: Jets.

NASHVILLE PREDATORS vs. CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS

Ex-Leafs involved: Mike Santorelli, Cody Franson, Victor Stalberg, Predators; Kris Versteeg, Blackhawks.

WHAT TO DO: Root for the Blackhawks. The earlier the Predators are eliminated, the better the first-round pick the Leafs get for sending Franson and Santorelli to Nashville.

ST. LOUIS BLUES vs MINNESOTA WILD

Ex-Leaf involved: Alexander Steen, Olli Jokinen, Carl Gunnarsson, St. Louis.

WHAT TO DO: Grimace every time you see Steen.

Playoff joy is everywhere! Well, everywhere but Hogtown

 

 source : macleans.ca

From Calgary to Winnipeg, Ottawa to Montreal, it’s playoff time. Meanwhile, the Leafs stink. Obviously.

For hockey fans, spring is all about the rituals. In Winnipeg, they stopped traffic at Portage and Main when the Jets clinched a playoff berth. The “Sens Army” filled their rink to watch an away game on the scoreboard, then headed out to the Ottawa airport to greet their conquering heroes. 

The bars and restaurants along Calgary’s “Red Mile” are bedecked and ready for the throngs that will come together to cheer on the Flames. While in Vancouver and Montreal, there is the usual sense of smugness, soon to give way to impossible expectations or theatrical despair—and, quite possibly, riots, regardless of the outcome.
Handshake lines, playoff beards and seafood splatting on the ice are among the many other fun traditions that surround the annual hunt for the Stanley Cup. Unless you live in Toronto, where early April is remarkable only for the return of baseball season.

Related: Before the season, we went inside the NHL 

The Maple Leafs celebrated the start of the NHL playoffs this week, in the same way they have in nine of the past 10 years—by packing up their belongings and slinking out of town. The shame-faced exodus is now familiar enough to have engendered its own rites and customs.

A last supper with teammates before the media Judases descend. The perp walk to the parking garage so the photographers can get shots of twentysomething millionaires toting their worldly possessions in black plastic garbage bags, like a tribe of super-fit refugees. And a final dressing room inquisition where pointed questions about half-hearted efforts and a lost season are met with worn clichés and practised non-apologies.

“Obviously, we didn’t get the job done on the ice,” winger James van Riemsdyk intoned to a thicket of cameras and microphones. “We didn’t get the job done. We fell short and we have to answer for that,” Leafs captain, Dion Phaneuf, told an even larger scrum. “Obviously, I think there’s probably going to be some changes, but you never know what’s going to happen, so we’ll just have to wait and see,” said Tyler Bozak, climbing out on a limb.

Related: Dion Phaneuf, before the season: ‘I have to be better, and I will be’

“Obviously, we missed the playoffs two years in a row, so obviously we’re not in the place where we want to be as a group,” goaltender Jonathan Bernier almost opined. But it was left to the team’s leading scorer, Phil Kessel—25 goals and 36 assists—to put it all in perspective. “Obviously, I’m not happy about it. It was just one of those years,” he said while gamely sporting a Blue Jays cap.

“Obviously, it’s tough. We didn’t get it done this year. And obviously, we’re not happy about it.”
To be fair, there was very little doubt surrounding the 2014-15 Toronto Maple Leafs. In early January, barely clinging to a playoff spot after losing seven of their previous 10 games, the organization fired head coach Randy Carlyle and promoted his assistant, Peter Horachek. The team responded by compiling the worst record in the NHL over 42 games, winning just nine times. The Leafs finished the year in 26th place overall, ahead of only Buffalo, Arizona and Canada’s other perennial disappointment, the Edmonton Oilers. Had the season been longer, they surely would have dropped further. In short, even by their own subterranean standards, these Leafs sucked.

Brendan Shanahan, a three-time Stanley Cup winner, who was brought in as club president after the Leafs failed to make last year’s playoffs, had also provided a hint or two. In advance of the March trade deadline, the team unloaded as many players as it could for prospects and draft picks. And then, on April 12, the day after the regular season ended with an overtime loss to the Canadiens, Shanahan fired his general manager, Dave Nonis, Horachek and his two assistants, the goalie coach, as well as almost two dozen scouts. At present, Toronto’s front office basically consists of the president and the stick boy. And there are more changes to come.

Meeting with the media, Shanahan promised that the firings were “just the beginning” of a complete organizational razing. The next task is to jettison many of the underachieving veterans earning big dollars. Obviously.

The rebuild won’t be quick. And the stated goal of capturing the franchise’s first Stanley Cup since 1967 lies somewhere in the distant future. Yet Shanahan says he believes Toronto fans are finally ready to embrace planned failures, if it will extract them from the endless cycle of unforeseen ones.
After the press conference, work crews were busy outside the Air Canada Centre wrapping entranceways with pictures of the Toronto Raptors and erecting huge banners with their slogan “We the North,” a celebration of a team that is destined for the NBA playoffs, which begin on April 18. The plaza outside, known as Maple Leaf Square, was empty but for a few fans getting ready for the Blue Jays’ home opener down the road at the Rogers Centre. How do you know it’s spring in Toronto? The Leafs are out.

Related: Profiling Dalton Pompey, the Toronto Blue Jays’ hometown kid in centrefield

Toronto Maple Leafs recall Colton Orr, part of an endangered species, for one last swing in the NHL

source : nationalpost.com

The Toronto Maple Leafs share the Air Canada Centre with the Toronto Raptors, but a different kind of dinosaur was back roaming around the arena on Thursday morning.

Toronto Maple Leafs recall Colton Orr: From scraps with George Parros to Brian Burke’s laments, some highlights from the enforcer’s career

Standing 6-foot-3 and weighing 222 pounds, Colton Orr still refers to himself as a “role player.” There are other names for what he does: enforcer, fighter, goon. Of course, extinct might be the most appropriate way of describing his role these days.

The last time Orr played in the NHL was on April 12, 2014. Since then, a lot has changed in the hockey world. One-dimensional role players have become an endangered species as more and more teams have decided to fill the fourth lines with players who can skate and score rather than drop the gloves and fight.

Related

• Leafs routed by Blue Jackets in final road game of the season
• From the Senators to the Jets and even (yes) the Leafs, it has been a good year for Canadian hockey fans

And so, while the Leafs recalled the 33-year-old from the minors to play in the final game of the regular season against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday — a classy gesture by the organization — it was mainly so that both he and the NHL could say goodbye one last time.

“I’m not going to think like that,” said Orr, who has not decided whether he will retire after the season. “I’m going to enjoy my last game as a Leaf and try to have some fun.”

Does that mean he has one more fight in him? Maybe not. In 14 games with the Marlies this season, Orr had zero points and zero fights. Part of that is by choice. But even if he wanted to, there are few players around left to fight him.

 

Rich Lam/Getty ImagesColton Orr is not the only victim of a new NHL. Tom Sestito, who led the league with 19 fights last year, has played three games with the Vancouver Canucks this season.

The heavyweights of the NHL, who were so prominent in the last two decades, have been forced out of the league, their knuckles dragging along the ground. And Toronto has largely led the revolution.

When Brian Bruke was hired as the Leafs general manager in November 2008, he promised to build a tougher team that had “proper measures of pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence.” Burke signed Orr to a four-year, US$4-million contract, making him one of the highest-paid enforcers, and filled out the rest of the roster with like-minded brawlers in Mike Brown, Jay Rosehill, Frazer McLaren and Mark Fraser.

Toronto led the NHL in fighting majors in 2012-13 and 2013-14. But it came at the cost of being a three-line team that typically faded in the second-half of the season. This year, the Leafs gave Orr’s roster spot to 5-foot-8 winger Brandon Kozun in hopes of creating a more balanced four-line attack.

“We threw all the cons on the table and just found that teams that are having more success are having deeper lineups,” Leafs GM Dave Nonis told the National Post in December.

The Leafs, who are tied for 19th with 24 fighting majors this season, have fought half the amount of times as they did last year. But the end result has been mostly the same. Toronto, which may not have been bullied off the ice physically, was certainly outworked and outplayed on most nights.

Having Orr in the lineup would not have changed that, although Horachek said, “I feel like sometimes we’ve missed that (physical presence).”

Orr is not the only victim of a new NHL. Tom Sestito, who led the league with 19 fights last year, has played three games with the Vancouver Canucks this season. Rich Clune (16 fights last year) and Jay Rosehill (10 fights) have spent all of this season in the minors, while Kevin Westgarth (six fights) is playing in Belfast and Krys Barch (13 fights) and George Parros (nine fights) have been without jobs.

 

Claus Andersen/Getty ImagesLast year, Colton Orr had no goals and no assists and averaged just five minutes and 23 seconds per game. On most nights, he spent more time in the penalty box than he did on the ice. It was a luxury that teams can no longer afford.

The game is changing. According to hockeyfights.com, the NHL is averaging .32 fights per game, down from .38 fights per game last season and a significant drop from .48 fights per game in
2012-13. The big change, however, is in the decrease of so-called “staged fights.” Only 44 games have featured more than one fight, which is 34 fewer than last season.

“I think a lot of the teams still have a physical presence,” said Leafs head coach Peter Horachek. “I think that the role of the singular heavyweight fighter is lessening and going away with a lot of the teams. But there’s still a lot of physical players that can play and it’s still a big part of the game.”
Indeed, players are still fighting. But that is not all they are doing.

Colorado’s Cody McLeod, who leads the league with 19 fights, also has six goals and 11 points. Vancouver’s Derek Dorsett (17 fights) has seven goals and 25 points, while Montreal’s Brandon Prust (16 fights) has 17 points and is averaging more than 13 minutes.

Last year, Orr had no goals and no assists and averaged just five minutes and 23 seconds per game. On most nights, he spent more time in the penalty box than he did on the ice. It was a luxury that teams can no longer afford.

“You seen a lot of it this year, a lot of guys get sent down,” said Orr, who scored 12 goals and 12 assists and had 1,186 penalty minutes in 476 career games. “It’s different, it’s changed a little bit. But I don’t think you’ve seen the end of it. I think there’s still a need for role players and guys looking out for teammates.

“It will be around for a little bit.”

Toronto's offseason plans; Big changes for Penguins? (Puck Headlines)

source : yahoo.com (Blog)

•Good stuff from Henrik Sedin, giving his 700th assist puck to Alex from the Make-A-Wish foundation. [Canucks for Kids]

• What will the Toronto Maple Leafs do in the offseason? The answers aren’t super clear cut. Peter Horachek is a goner. But beyond him? [Toronto Sun]

• If the Pittsburgh Penguins miss the playoffs, are big changes in store? Amazing that this is a possibility. [National Post]

• What should the Bruins do to beat the Panthers? Claude Julien needs to go back to the lines that created earlier success against Florida. [Big Bad Blog]

• How did Devan Dubnyk go from outcast to the Wild’s savior? [The Hockey Writers]

• Ryan Miller returns … as Eddie Lack’s backup. [Vancouver Canucks]

• Dubnyk will not start Thursday night against Nashville. It will be Darcy Kuemper who has not made a start since Jan. 6. That is not a typo – Dubnyk had 39 straight starts. [Star Tribune]

• How will a new arena help University of Nebraska Omaha in recruiting more top talent to its
hockey program. [Omaha.com]

• Root for Reto Berra if you’re a Kings fan! [Royal Half]

• If you’re the Kings, don’t root for Jonas Hiller, who actually could derail LA’s playoff hopes. [LA Times]

• The Islanders need to pick up Jaroslav Halak after his flub against the Philadelphia Flyers. This play cost the Islanders a playoff spot. [Islanders Insight]

• How and why did Derek Dorsett cash in with his new contract in Vancouver? [Dobber Hockey]

• The Anaheim Ducks are struggling a bit before the postseason starts. And they have few answers as to why. Me thinks it’s the fact Ryan Getzlaf has been hampered with an issue. [Fox Sports West]

• Emerson Etem is the Ducks’ future in many different ways: Born in 1992, Etem is one of only six current NHL players who identify as African-American. But that's not all: He's one of the precious few professional hockey players to come from Southern California, as well as the first local prospect to play for an area team. [OC Weekly]

• The great Eddie Shore and the myth of Jan. 3, 1929. [Greatest Hockey Legends]

• Risers and fallers in Central Scouting’s final list of players for the 2015 NHL Draft. Of course, Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel were No. 1 and No. 2. [Buzzing the Net]

• Many have talked about the Red Wings’ younger players and how they’ve helped the team. But it’s the old guard pushing Detroit into the postseason. [Detroit News]

• The Kings have announced the formation of a high school hockey league. [LA Kings]

• Parts of the Nashville Predators organization will take part at the World Championships, even with the team in the playoffs. This includes Harvard's Jimmy Vesey for Team USA. [Nashville Post]

• India’s hockey team is crowdsourcing funds to play in a tournament in Kuwait. [CBC]

• The Blackhawks are resting some of their guys. The Blues are going for it. Which strategy is the best strategy? [Sun-Times]

• A Curtis Joseph sighting in Orlando? CuJo returns! Sort of at least. [Pro Hockey News]

• Finally, Jimmy Fallon rips on NHL players. And we’re all better for it.

Imagining the Leafs’ Summer Plans

source : http://thehockeywriters.com

The Leafs have been eliminated from the Playoffs and while the season melts down into yet another controversy I don’t feel like wasting my time caring about (Bernier spoke the truth? For shame!

Kessel and the coach are at odds? I doubt we’ll be seeing much of either of them come June, so who cares?) we can now safely turn our attention to the summer and participate in the one thing that is fun about cheering for a bad team: the future.

The Leafs (barring a late-season winning streak by the Oilers or – God Forbid! – themselves) look firmly entrenched in 27th place, which means that they will (barring their own lottery win, or one by a team below them) likely pick fourth in the upcoming draft.

That means a likely choice between Dylan Strome and Mitch Marner.

If I am the Leafs in this position, I’d be kinda mad.  Eichel or McDavid give us the no-miss #1 C the team has craved since Sundin and potentially the type of generational star that Toronto has never seen.  Noah Hanifin as a partner for Morgan Rielly for the next decade is the next best possible outcome, but a consolation prize of Dylan Strome – who I’d take right now based off what I can read about both players at this time – is nothing to scoff at.

Hey, Nice Jersey! Dylan Strome (Aaron Bell/OHL Images)

Strome is 6’3 centre who’ll be over 200lbs by the time he suits up in the NHL. That’s size almost comparable to Joe Thornton, and his pass first, “not a great skater but supreme vision and passing skills” sound reminiscent of Thornton’s own scouting report (although I get the impression that Strome likes shooting a bit more).

Besides Joe Thornton, I’ve heard Nick Backstrom and John Tavares as NHL comparables, with the “aggressiveness of a Perry or Kessler” thrown in for good measure. Since Marner projects as a winger and I’ve had about my fill of a team built around soft forwards, I’ll be very, very happy to pick-up a brand-new Strome Leafs Jersey the day after the draft.(If that sounds like I’m calling Marner soft, I’m not. I just like how aggressive Strome sounds like he is).

There Is At Least 1 More Pick, But First: Trades

The Leafs currently hold the free-falling Predators’ first pick, but before moving on to that pick, I’d like to indulge our collective fantasies in some good-old-fashioned trade talk.
In my opinion, the Leafs need to reboot this entire roster.  Outside of young players like Panik and old players with no value like Robidas, I would be willing to move anyone and everyone, with the exception of Kadri, Gardiner and – of course – Rielly and Nylander.

(Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

Phil Kessel:

While I have written in his defense and have also suggested that we not be so hasty to move him out of town, I think that ship has sailed. When it’s all said and done, watching Hamilton have a Norris Trophy worthy season while Seguin competes for the Art Ross makes me sick to my stomach.

Sorry to everyone I ever tried to convince about Brian Burke’s genius or the merits of that trade.
But, that can’t affect our evaluation of the current asset and Kessel’s potential measured against wasting his prime years as the team rebuilds and the fact that he’s coming off more and more as a petulant baby by the day, makes me think he isn’t worth the headache.  Send him to a team that will love his scoring where he can be a complimentary piece like he should have been here.

To that end, I trade him on the draft floor to the Panthers for their first round pick (11th today) Erik Gudbranson (6’5 former #3 overall pick with a 49% CF and being utilized basically as the Panthers 6th D, with the caveat that he does play some tough shut-down minutes) and Rocco Grimaldi (potential superstar if not for the fact he is 5’6, 160).

I believe this is a realistic package for a player who has 50 goal potential and is (removing this year where he was really unlucky as well as in a horrible situation) in his prime. The Leafs get a pick, a failed pick who might turn out to be really good and a prospect with crazy potential in the Theo Fleury mold.

James Van Riemsdyk:

As the pretend GM of the Leafs, I surprise the hockey world by trading both of my star wingers on the draft floor. The reasoning: if you’re gonna rebuild, do it right.  I send JVR to the Islanders (desperate for a star winger to round out the Tavares/Okposo combo after losing in the Conference Final) in exchange for potential star defenseman Griffin Rienhart, a 6’4 200lbs player with massive potential who the Islanders don’t really have a spot for at this time.



Tyler Bozak and Joffrey Lupul: 

I trade Tyler Bozak to whoever wants him for whatever they’ll pay for him and then count myself lucky to be rid of his contract.  The same goes with Joffrey Lupul.  Any 2nd to late round picks these turkeys might bring back are pure gravy.

Jonathan Bernier:

He’s actually better than you think, but the team in front of him is so bad (for example he’s faced 40 shots or more in roughly a quarter of his starts) it’s hard to notice.  I think a team in  need of a goalie would want him and so after the Jets fail to advance past the first round, the Leafs send him west in exchange for Alex Bermistrov.

Bermistrov is a 23 year old former first rounder who couldn’t get a contract done with the Jets and is playing in Russia. He remains an intriguing NHL prospect who is a good skater and above average defensive player, and it would be a coupe for the Leafs to get him.

Dion Phaneuf:

It will make me sad to see the Leafs trade their captain, and who knows – maybe they won’t.  If you move out the rest of the current core group and realize that Dion makes an amazing #3 and a pretty good #2, it’s not the worst idea to keep him.  But, I want to burn this mother to the ground, so I trade him anyway, even though he get’s a bad rap and is a way better player than most Leafs fans are willing to admit.

While Detroit is the obvious destination, they refuse to send me Anthony Mantha and I end up trading Phaneuf to the Stars for the 5’11 defenseman Julius Honka (14th overall last year) and a second round pick.

(Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports)

Back to the Draft

Now that the Leafs have acquired Florida and Nashville’s picks, it behooves us to see who is available at the spots they will potentially pick at.

With Florida’s 11th overall pick, the Leafs take Jakub Zboril.  Zboril is a fast skating defenseman with decent size who can fit the mold of the puck-moving, high possession team the Leafs want to build.  He projects as an above average two-way defenseman with a heavy shot and “high hockey sense” (Craig Button).

With the Predator’s 20th overall pick, the Leafs take Jeremy Roy.  Roy is an offensive defenseman who has an extremely high ceiling, based on everything I can gather about him.  He may be similar to Zboril, but I think hockey teams are built through the blueline, so I take him and hope that one or the other turns into a star puck-mover.

 Final Analysis

Now, I get that it’s easy to be cynical, but this is just a fun activity. Do I overate what teams may pay for the Leafs players? Probably. Are the Leafs likely to make four or five trades leading up to the draft and end up with three first round picks? No.

But who cares? The team has been brutal this year and it’s a fun activity to image what the team might get in return for tearing this thing down. Let us look at what a future Leafs lineup may look like, assuming they could actually pull off anything close to what I’ve proposed here.

Forward:

Bermistrov – Strome – Nylander
Leipsic – Kadri – Grimaldi
Panik –   Holland – Brown
Leivo – Gauthier – Komarov

Defense:

Rielly –  Honka
Reinhart – Gudbranson
Gardiner –  Roy
Zboril

Goalie:  James Reimer

OK, I know it isn’t exactly realistic, but how ecstatic would you be if after this summer, the Leafs rebuild resembled anything close to this?  Phil who?

Thanks for reading.

Le navire des Maple Leafs coule de manière sublime!

source : lapresse.ca

La direction des Maple Leafs de Toronto a réussi sa manoeuvre de tankage à la perfection. Les Leafs ont le pire club de la LNH depuis la mi-janvier.

Ils ont une fiche de 6-25-3 à leurs 34 derniers matchs, nous rapporte le collègue James Mirtle, du Globe and Mail, un effort de médiocrité que les Sabres de Buffalo et les Coyotes de l’Arizona n’ont même pas réussi égaler.

Avec seulement six matchs à faire, ils sont presque assurés de terminer au 27e rang, ce qui leur permettrait d’obtenir le quatrième choix au repêchage, et 9,5% de remporter la loterie Connor McDavid.

Après McDavid et Jack Eichel, des joueurs de qualité comme le défenseur Noah Hanifin, Dylan Strome, Lawson Crouse et Mitch Marner sont disponibles. Marner a obtenu 126 points à London cette saison. Strome, coéquipier de McDavid, a 129 points.

Hockey (VINE) Phil Kessel Testy with reporter ----Fast Version---

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