Toronto Maple Leafs: What the Leafs Can Learn from Chiarelli

Until recently, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers have attracted a fair share of comparisons to each other.

It’s not hard to see why. From 2006-17, both the Oilers and the Toronto Maple Leafs were the NHL’s equivalent of the ginger kid from Cheaper by the Dozen. You know, the one who gets ignored by his entire family and ends up making irrational, emotional decisions just to get attention? I think his name was Mark or something.

Honestly, I tried to find the clip where he runs away from home like an idiot, but it literally does not exist on YouTube. Classic Mark.

Anyway, this past summer, the Oilers were faced with a challenging set of personnel decisions that, in two years, the Leafs inevitably will be as well. Not only was the contract of “History’s Best German Hockey Player™” Leon Draisital set to expire, but in one years time, so was Connor McDavid’s.

Both players are vital to the team’s long-term success, so locking them up seemed like a no-brainer, right?

Well, when you’re Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli, nothing is a no-brainer.

I believe the key to success lies in learning from failure. And, in rare cases, that failure isn’t necessarily your own. Considering how similar the Leafs and Oilers are, I think it would be beneficial to the Leafs success if they analyze Pistol Pete’s tenure in Edmonton.

There may not be a better example of how NOT to build an NHL team out there. (Just kidding, I see you, Marc Bergevin).

(Lack of) Secondary Scoring

More from Editor In Leaf

Paying your superstar is easy. It’s paying his reinforcements that’s hard.

Contrary to popular belief, Connor McDavid is only one man. A generational player he may be, but he can’t do everything single-handedly. He needs secondary scoring.

To their credit, the Leafs have done a phenomenal job surrounding their dynamic trio of Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Mitch Marner with exactly that.

Despite the temptation, Lou Lamoriello has neglected to trade perennial 30-goal-scorer James van Riemsdyk. This summer, he broke the bank to bring in 500-goal-scorer Patrick Marleau. And, better yet, the team has locked up 20-goal scorer Connor Brown, and 30-goal-scorer Nazem Kadri to long-term, sweetheart deals.

Alternatively, Chiarelli seems hell-bent on shipping out every secondary scoring option in his general vicinity. It’s a bold move, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off. (It hasn’t)

The Oilers are currently trotting out Mark Letestu on their top PP unit. Something called Drake Caggiula is up on their top line. And lately, things have gotten so bad that they’ve shifted Draisital to the wing… on the second line (???). A lineup like that boasts all the depth of a Pitbull banger.

It’s common knowledge that to succeed in the NHL, your star players need scoring help. Thankfully, the Leafs seem to be already succeeding where the Oilers have failed.

Free Agent Foolishness

Imagine you’re the manager of a McDonald’s franchise.

One day, you muster up the courage to tell Corporate that your store needs a new fryer. Despite already owning a perfectly good fryer, Corporate gives you the green light to buy a new one.

Hot diggity!

Except, instead of being smart with Corporate’s money, you spend $42 million on a fryer that’s too slow to work properly. In fact, you’re actually now stuck with it for the next seven years. At that point, you’d almost expect to be fired, right?

Well, Milan Lucic is that fryer.

He was given a LUDICROUS amount of money to do basically one thing: play on McDavid’s wing. And, 20 games into last season, guess what we found out he was too slow to do? Play on McDavid’s wing.

It’s easy to see why this happened. The Oilers believed their window of contention had opened and handed Lucic a blank cheque, disregarding any long-term ramifications. But, you know who also once signed a similar deal under those circumstances? David Clarkson. That worked out well, right?

Now, it’ll be tempting for the Leafs to follow this path in the summer when the collective salaries of JVR, Tyler Bozak, and Leo Komarov come off the books. However, unlike the Oilers, this team possesses a little thing called “organizational depth”.

The Leafs won’t need to drop dolla dolla bills on a Komarov replacement because they probably have one in Carl Grundstrom. They won’t need to shore up their defence by handing $16 million to Kris Russell, statistically one of the worst defencemen in the NHL, because they already have Timothy Liljegren and Travis Dermott waiting for their shot.

I could go on, but you get my point.

With options already in their system, this team can avoid panicking. And speaking of panicking…

Panic! At the Trade Table

Remember that dude who got famous for turning a paper clip into a mansion via a series of eBay trades? Yeah, Chiarelli is basically the opposite of that guy.

Somehow, he’s turned Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Nail Yakupov, Matthew Barzal, and Justin Schultz into Adam Larsson, Ryan Strome, Zach Pochiro (who?), Stuart Skinner (who?), and (the dearly departed) Griffin Reinhart.

Here’s a tip: never check out how your exes are doing without you.

Hall is a point per game player with the Devils. Eberle is on pace for 60 points. Barzal is in the Calder conversation. Yakupov is on pace for 25 goals. And, Schultz is now a top pairing defenseman on a back-to-back Stanley Cup-winning team.

On the other hand, Larsson currently has 3 points, the Oilers are ALREADY trying to get rid of Strome, Skinner has a .889 save percentage in the WHL, and Pochiro straight up doesn’t exist.

This gets even funnier when you find out the Oilers are reportedly looking for offensive wingers. HMM, I WONDER WHY YOU’RE IN NEED OF THAT, PETER????

Instead, let’s just laugh at this clip of Eberle and Barzal connecting to score on Edmonton:

It's like @jeberle_7 knew exactly where he wanted to shoot on Talbot. #EDMvsNYI https://t.co/VbvSvyZayM
— NHL (@NHL) November 8, 2017

The Leafs find themselves in a position similar to the pre-Hall trade Oilers, minus all the losing. They’re thin at D and loaded with offensive wingers. However, instead of making a knee-jerk trade, it would be best for them to just stand put.

At the end of the day, if the move you’re making comes from a place of panic, it’s probably the wrong move.

What Have We Learned?

I’ll let Dwight Schrute take it from here. (Side note: replace the word “idiot” with “Peter Chiarelli”).