The Key to Building a Playoff Team: Leafs Edition

By Alex Hobson

As of last night, the Chicago Blackhawks are the 2015 Stanley Cup Champions. It was a good battle between the Hawks and the Tampa Bay Lightning, and one thing that made this series very exciting is the compete level between each of these teams. When it comes to playoff action, Chicago is a very dangerous team. They have scorers who show up at the right time, a very deep defensive core, and they have a solid goaltender. The Lightning aren't far off, either. They don't have as much experience as the Hawks do, but they do have young, fast snipers, a decently deep defensive core, and a stable goaltender. Both these teams are bound to have success for a very long time. What do these two teams have in common? They both built their current core through the draft.

The Toronto Maple Leafs attempted to begin a rebuild in 2008, when they scored the 5th overall pick and selected Luke Schenn, and then selected Nazem Kadri seventh overall  in 2009. Before they picked Kadri, Brian Burke was named as GM, and one of his very first quotes was "I am a very impatient man, I want to win now" so just like that, he traded the Leafs' first round picks in 2010 and 2011 along with a second round pick in 2011 to the Boston Bruins in exchange for sniper Phil Kessel. He also traded Ian White, Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman, and Jamal Mayers to the Calgary Flames in exchange for big defenseman Dion Phaneuf, Frederik Sjostrom, and Keith Aulie. These trades proved to be some of the biggest during Burke's tenure as Leafs GM, as Kessel and Phaneuf would both develop into members of our core. Unfortunately, the Leafs would only make the playoffs once during the Burke era, in the shortened 2012-13 era, only to horribly choke the series to the Boston Bruins in game 7. Since then, Burke has been long fired, Dave Nonis, who was most recently the GM, has been fired, and we are now left with a management team of Brendan Shanahan, Kyle Dubas, and Mark Hunter. These three have the right idea of what's going on, and they are ready to remain patient and build a new Leafs team through the draft. This has a lot of Leafs fans excited, because what did the Chicago Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning do to end up with their current team? They built through the draft. First, lets have a look at the Chicago Blackhawks' roster.

The Chicago Blackhawks were at the bottom of the standings for the longest time, but beginning officially in 2003, the Blackhawks began their rebuild. Lets take a look at their current roster and where those players were picked up. Star sniper Patrick Kane was taken first overall by the Blackhawks in 2007, centre Jonathan Toews was taken third overall in 2006, defenseman Brent Seabrook was taken at 9th overall in 2003, Conn Smythe winning defenseman Duncan Keith was taken in the second round at 54th overall in 2002, and goaltender Corey Crawford was taken in the second round at 52nd overall in 2003. Not to mention their other regular players on their roster such as Brandon Saad, Andrew Shaw, Niklas Hjalmarsson, and Bryan Bickell were all drafted by the Blackhawks in between the second and fifth rounds. Rookie Teuvo Teravainen was also drafted by the Hawks in the first round in 2012. There are few players on the roster who weren't groomed by the Blackhawks, some of these players including Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa, and Brad Richards, but the majority of this cup winning team have been with the Hawks from the start.

Next, lets have a look at the Tampa Bay Lightning. Perhaps the biggest name to be said among the Lightning's core, is captain Steven Stamkos, whom the Lightning drafted first overall in 2008. The following year, in 2009, the Lightning drafted their top defenseman, Victor Hedman, second overall. They drafted their young backup goalie Andrei Vasilevsky in the first round in 2012. Not to mention, they drafted two thirds of their triplets line consisting of Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson, and Nikita Kucherov. Palat was the Lightning's seventh round pick (208th overall) in 2011, while Kucherov was their second round pick (58th overall) in the same year. The third member of the triplets line, Tyler Johnson, went undrafted in all three of his draft years, but signed with the club in March of 2011, and was nonetheless groomed by the club as if he were a draft pick, and he later went on to record 72 points in 77 games with the Lightning in 2014-15. The Lightning did the same thing with sophomore J.T Brown, who went undrafted but was signed by the Lightning and developed as if he was a draft pick. As you can see, the Lightning also have an established core consisting of players who have been with the Lightning from the beginning.

Now, to compare it to the Leafs' squad. It is very likely that the Leafs are going to clean house on their roster and get rid of players they traded for such as Kessel, Phaneuf, Tyler Bozak, and Joffrey Lupul. If all goes as planned, then prospects such as William Nylander, Connor Brown, Josh Leivo, Stuart Percy, Viktor Loov, Byron Froese, Matt Finn, and Rinat Valiev could all potentially have roster spots in the future, along with their fellow draft picks in this coming draft. The Leafs have also done their part in signing undrafted players, such as forward Casey Bailey out of Penn. State of the NCAA, and Russian scorer Nikita Soshnikov out of Atlant Moscow Oblast of the KHL. If they can maintain a healthy rebuild, then a future core could potentially consist of Morgan Rielly, James van Riemsdyk, William Nylander, and whoever they choose with their fourth overall pick this year. There are lots of options, but as you can see, from the two contending teams, they have prospects from the first round throughout the seventh round, so development is key in this coming rebuild, and if we can stick with it properly, then things might finally turn around in Leafland.

What do you think, Leafs fans? Do you like the approach of building through the draft? Weigh in and leave feedback in the comments below.