How Cup Winners are Built, or Why Brian Burke's Way is the Wrong Way

If we’d signed him when he was a bantam.

I think that’s a solid point, but why not also look at how he built the Canucks who are a pretty successful club.

When it comes down to it he lucked into Pronger. Seriously, Pronger for Lupul, Smid, a late 2nd, and a late first. That’s one of the biggest heists of the past 20 years and you can’t count on something like that ever happening again.

kessel for seguin is a trade that is justifiable, and this coming draft doesn’t have any top 3 players that really jump out at you so just relax

I would trade Schenn for the right price. And by right price I mean basically a franchise center and a 1st round pick.

I dunno, but if you freak out about it enough I bet it’ll happen faster.

How will Burke get what he needs? Draft, trade, free agency. If he can’t get it done, he’ll get fired.

First, nice article even though I don’t completely agree with all the points but none the less, an enjoyable read. I wonder how many younger stars like Kessel will pull the same thing with their respective teams. I am talking rare but young stars or at least their agents really have teams at their mercy once their ELC is up. If a young star, say Traves or Stamkos doesn’t want to be in Tampa or the Isle and want to play for another team. It can come down to I want “X” amount to be here and if not I’m out. so free agency is and will always be an unknown.

We don’t know much about what will definitely happen in the future but we can always reference the past as a barometer but in in the NHL, the past NHL is so different than the “new” NHL. I see it as so many things in motion its hard to pin point exactly what the best method is so a mix of all makes the most (safest) bet to me. It would be great if the Leafs had more of their own draft selections playing on the team but that isn’t the current management’s fault. What we have seen by what and who they drafted the past two drafts, don’t look too bad. I can definitely see some of those picks eventually suiting up for the Buds.

But one thing that has been omitted is the role of bottom pairings. I don’t believe it is only the stars on the team (top six) that play over their heads but rather the bottom six like players that realize that this could be their last chance since careers of bottom six is a lot less than the stars on the team so they are usually the ones that sick out in my mind as players that take their game to the next level. Every year we see this time and time again… don’t get me wrong, the stars turn up their game play too but they are supposed to since they are the stars not scrubs.

I still think this accelerated rebuild is necessary for the organization since we can all agree that the cupboards were bare and in two years we can’t expect those cupboards to be fully restocked but so far its a lot better than one can expect to this point. We are on the way there but still ways out. That will take time as we only really have one time a year (baring trades) to add to that pool – the draft as in making the best of all rounds. And as a side note, I think all teams try to draft whom the think the best player available is and in more times than not, not a star. So to argue that stars only can be found in the first round is a bit misleading but more common than not.

As for the big club, you can say the same and since there really wasn’t anything here to write home about but we are slowly adding to that too. The fastest way is via free agency or trades and that’s what has to happen until we have a foundation in the pipeline to add to the big club internally. And the players Burke is getting are young still developing players in hopes he can find a core that will gel together especially when some of the picks start turning into players he can insert into the lineup in a couple of years time. The young team we are seeing now is something a fan like me hopes that a handful will be our core but that’s something we wont be able to see in a couple of years time, not now, not after only two years.

Rec’d.

DAMN YOU CLOONEY

Karina has the best signature ever. Derp.

Fine, then answer my question. What is your vision for the Leafs winning the Cup?

How will they do it?

I lol’d hard.

I think you need to print this comment and hang it on your fridge for the whole world to look at.

The 2013 Toronto Maple Leafs?

How have Florida and Columbus not been bad enough to get franchise players?

Washington is in a good situation but I don’t see a Cup in their future this year and they’re going to lose Semin and likely Fleischman.

Cam Ward was taken 25th overall.
Kopitar was 11th overall and has never won a Cup.
Stamkos and Hedman have never won a Cup.
Edmonton winning a Cup? Bwahahahahahaha

Columbus has picked in the Top 5 3 times and 6th overall 3 times since 2000.
Florida has had a Top 3 pick 3 times since 2000 as well.

Washington is on their way to a cup

That’s up for debate.

I would definitely take their situation over ours.

Agreed

Columbus and Florida have NOT done it right.

Agreed

They’ve never been bad enough to get a franchise player since Rick Nash, and you can’t do it once, you have to do it at least twice

This isn’t correct. Florida and Columbus have both been bad for several years, only in recent years they tried to climb that mountain and couldn’t get anywhere. They underline the danger of the tanking strategy in that nothing is guaranteed.

(Toews-Kane, Crosby-Malkin-Staal-Fleury, Ovechkin-Backstrom, Kopitar-Doughty, Stamkos-Hedman, Staal-Ward, Edmonton eventually with Hall-Eberle-Paajarvi-2011).

I don’t know why you have examples on this list that haven’t even won a playoff round yet, but Kopitar’s a 10th overall pick, Ward’s a 30th pick, and Eberle and Paajarvi were mid-1sts. Those aren’t picks you tank for.

But we still have Allaire training Giguere and we don’t have to watch Toskala play more than 3 games last season.