One More Spin Around the Block

That’s the word from Brendan Shanahan, Kyle Dubas and Sheldon Keefe right now. One more kick at the can (at least).

I’m not about to write much on this. I’m too disconnected to really care at the moment, but will have some thoughts as the days pass by.

Next up for the Leafs is the NHL Entry Draft, scheduled for the Thursday, July 7th and 8th, in which the Leafs hold 3 draft picks (1st, 3rd, 7th). So, I mean, there isn’t much to look forward to there.

After that it’s NHL Free Agency, which open July 13th. With just under $8M in capspace, no starting goaltender, 4 RFAs (Sandin, Liljegren, Kase, Engvall) to sign and a few holes to fill, that, too, should be pretty uneventful if Kyle Dubas can’t manage to open up capspace elsewhere.

I’ll do my best to post articles this summer, but, if I’m being honest, they’ll only be slightly different versions of the same thing, with the same results (which is ironic, considering that’s what the Leafs are).

In a nutshell, this isn’t good enough and the vision is wrong. I’m not against having the top 4 aligned as they are, even if half of them don’t have any chemistry with each other. But to roll out a bottom 6 with the likes of Kase, Blackwell, Spezza and, at times, Kerfoot, who all bring zero physicality or fill any real role outside of offense, which disappeared when the games got tough, doesn’t sit well with me. Your roster can’t be all about offense. In the words of Brian Burke, you need some lunch bucket players. While the former GMs vision didn’t work, neither is this one. A combination of the two is what’s needed, but Kyle Dubas appears blind to that fact.

At this point talking about it is infuriating. There doesn’t appear to be any type of real change on the horizon, so why even bother to discuss what we think is needed? All we’ll get is another iteration of Colin Blackwell, Jimmy Vesey, Nic Petan, Dmytro Timashov or Nick Shore and they’ll call it change. While that, to me, is change for the sake of change. It’s lateral moves that they promise they won’t make. That, to me, is where they need to revamp the lineup if they continue to refuse to move on from any of the top end cap eaters.

That is the article you’ll get this summer. Over and over. It will be in the form of a condescending draft day primer, where I’ll mention their “all offense, no size” approach to drafting. Then in the form of a free agent tracker article, where I’ll beg for players like Nick Paul, Josh Manson, Mason Marchment and, even though he doesn’t hit, I’ll even talk about settling for the likes of Max Domi. But instead, we’ll hear the rumors of this team’s interest in Vinny Hinostroza or Gerald Mayhew.

Lovely. Just lovely.