Toronto Maple Leafs Have to Trade 1st Round Picks

It’s time for the Toronto Maple Leafs to consider trading 1st round draft picks.

With the Toronto Maple Leafs signalling the end of their rebuild with the win-now signing of Patrick Marleau, it is now time to utilize the assets they have accumulated, in addition to the draft picks they have at their disposal, and get this team to the level of other Cup Contenders.

While trading picks is often looked at as “the mistakes other Leafs GMs constantly made,” and “selling out the future,” fans have realize that the future is now.  The Leafs have cap space, a ton of talent, at least three super-star players on entry-level deals, a ton of team-friendly contracts for players in their prime,  and, because of all this, a chance to exploit the salary cap and ice a team way better than anyone in a cap-league has  a right to.

Even though this suggestion will be met with cries of “patience” it’s important for teams that want to win to understand the right time to ‘go for it.’  For the Toronto Maple Leafs, while the goal is to build a sustainable competitive team, the skill level of their entry-level contract players means they will never, ever have another chance like they do right now, and next season.  In fact, no NHL team has ever had a chance like this in the cap era.

With Kadri, Andersen, van Riemsdyk, Komarov, Gardiner, Rielly and Zaitsev all at or near their primes and on very cheap, team friendly contracts, and Matthews, Nylander, Marner, Kapanen and Liljegren all basically playing for free (as far as cap-hits go) the Leafs have a unique opportunity to possibly ice the most talented team in post-salary cap history.

Toronto Maple Leafs: 1sts on the Table

Even though most first round picks don’t amount to much if you’re picking below the top five, the lottery ticket nature of a draft pick seduces fans and NHL GMs alike into over-valuing them.  This means fans are loathe to lose picks, and GMs will over pay for them.  It happens all the time.

A smart team would therefore see value in trading picks.  Obviously not every pick, and for sure a balance must be retained between being competitive now and later, but I think it’s very obvious that the Leafs won’t  be picking top-five any time soon.

There is risk in trading picks: a couple of injuries and boom! you miss the playoffs and win the lotttery. Oops! Ask Brian Burke how that feels.   Still, this risk is mitigated by the potential rewards.

The difference between the old Leafs way of trading picks and what I’m proposing is that in the past, the Leafs had the money to be able to afford (or think so anyways) that they could trade picks and buy back whatever they needed later.  This led to a characteristic arrogance and lack of patience that culminated itself after the lockout when Toronto was arguably the last team to come to terms with operating in a salary cap world.

But the Leafs now are a team with a real shot to win, if only they can augment what they currently have.  The only way to do that without hurting yourself now is to add in draft picks to any trade proposal.

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The Time is Now

Currently this is a team with a Hall of Fame coach,  three young superstars, a group of in-their-prime core players that make the team extremely deep, and an all-star caliber goalie.  If you were to add a top-ten NHL defenseman to this team, or something approximating that, it would be the best team in the NHL.

If all that is standing in the way of the Toronto Maple Leafs being the best team in hockey is trading a few draft picks, I say go for it.  The risk will be mitigated by the youth of this team, and the current strength of its prospect system.  If there were to trade the next two 1st rounders, even if those turned into great players, the team wouldn’t be able to use them during their current window.

Just because Leafs management of old had a tendency to lack patience and sell out the future, it doesn’t mean that trading picks is automatically bad.   Look instead to the Pittsburgh Penguins who have traded their last five 1st rounders (if you include Kapanen, whom they drafted and immediately traded to Toronto).  Since drafting Crosby, the Penguins have only dressed two of their first rounders for significant games.  The rest have been traded, either as picks or prospects to keep their Stanley Cup window open.

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They’ve gone to four Finals and won three Cups during this time.