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Toronto Maple Leafs: You’re Allowed to Get Mad at This Team

By Mike Stephens|
TORONTO, ON - FEBRUARY 9: Roman Polak
TORONTO, ON - FEBRUARY 9: Roman Polak

The Toronto Maple Leafs have re-signed defenceman Roman Polak to a 1-year deal, paying him $1.1 million.

When news of the Toronto Maple Leafs signing broke, I was sitting in the Ricoh Coliseum press box, in the midst of covering my first professional hockey game. It was a watershed moment for me. Reporting on hockey games is something I have dreamt of doing ever since I learned to read.

For as long as I can remember, I would look up at the press box with envy, firmly telling myself that, one day, I would have a place in there. As fate would have it, this past Sunday is when that day came, and my dream became reality.

And yet, despite achieving the very thing I had spent my childhood reaching for, the news of Polak’s signing ruined my day.

Potential

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The Toronto Maple Leafs are a good hockey team. There is no denying that. Unfortunately, good teams rarely win Stanley Cups. Great teams do, and the Leafs are far from being a great team.  Now, they certainly possess the potential to become one. Any team with Auston Matthews does. It just seems like, on the path to achieving greatness, this team cannot get out of their own way.

This past weekend, the Marlies happened to ice a minimum of three defencemen who would serve as better bottom pairing options for the Leafs than Polak. Vincent LoVerde, Travis Dermott, and Rinat Valiev could all comfortably occupy a 7th D spot on this roster. Furthermore, each player possesses infinitely more positional upside, speed, and offensive potential than Polak currently does.

And yet, here we are.

Now, most of you will likely chastise me for getting so worked up over depth players. Why should I waste energy on a guy who will likely (hopefully) play bottom six minutes? Well, I’ll tell you why. I’m worked up for the simple reason that this team could be great. Instead, based on moves like this one, they seem to be content on settling for being merely good. That is not acceptable.

Options

The Polak signing is far from an isolated incident. The Leafs have consciously made the decision to play Matt Martin, a man assuming a role which died out years ago league-wide, over demonstrably better players. Josh Leivo has seen his development stunted, perhaps irreparably so, because the Leafs believe Martin can strike fear into his opponents while sitting on the bench for 52 minutes a game.

Kasperi Kapanen happens to be an incredibly skilled player, one who would immediately bolster the Leafs penalty kill, while simultaneously injecting the lineup with a further dimension of elite speed. Instead, he’s toiling away on the Marlies, all so Martin can be on the bench to make up cool handshakes with Mitch Marner.

Don’t get me wrong, that handshake is totally awesome. I’d even go as far as to call it, as the kids say, dope. It’s just that, and call me crazy, I’d rather win the game instead.

Polak’s signing bumps Connor Carrick to the press box as well. Now, up until Saturday’s contest, Carrick had been playing what many believe to be the best hockey of his career. So, naturally, the Leafs are rewarding him for this by replacing him with a slow, aging, ineffective option that screams of unnecessary desperation. How can this possibly be good for Carrick’s development? How can you expect Carrick to hit his stride when he’s not seeing game action?

The answer is that you simply can’t.

Irresponsible

How many more young players do the Leafs plan on locking in the press box in favour of older, less effective options? This team has already been forced to give away Brendan Leipsic, a 22-year-old, point-per-game winger in the AHL, for free, all to keep Martin and his nine total points in the fold.

Quite frankly, I’m at the end of my rope with this.

I love Mike Babcock, I really do, but it seems that when he forms an idea of a player in his head, there is simply no changing his mind. Just ask Frank Corrado.

That is an incredibly dangerous precedent, particularly for a team that’s littered with developing players. These youngsters need to be allowed to make mistakes. It’s the only way they can get better. Benching them for Polak accomplishes nothing except hindering their respective improvement.

Polak simply will not perform better than any of the Leafs young options. So, why not just let them figure it out themselves instead? What tangible value does Polak bring to this lineup that these young players don’t?

And you’re not allowed to say veteran leadership. He doesn’t need to be on the ice to provide that.

Anger

In case you haven’t picked up on it yet, I’m mad. And you know what? That’s okay. I’m allowed to be mad at this team. People seem to think that this Leafs regime has earned the benefit of the doubt from their fan base. That we should blindly place our trust their in their every move, and refrain from questioning anything.

Screw that. You know what teams earn the benefit of the doubt? Stanley Cup winners. And last I checked, the Leafs last Cup win happened prior to the moon landing. So, until they win it again, I’m going to continue to get understandably upset when this team makes unnecessary and quite frankly stupid personnel moves. Signing Polak happens to be one of them.

You don’t owe this team anything. Yes, this is a new regime. Yes, the early returns have been promising. However, the Leafs remain the same franchise responsible for handing David Clarkson $36 million. Forgive me if I’m still skeptical.

Next: The Key

Now, Polak certainly isn’t Clarkson. What he is, however, is an anchor weighing this team down from hitting the surface of their potential. And until they reach it, I’m absolutely allowed to be mad at this team. And you are too.

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