I was about 15 years old when I started writing articles on the Toronto Maple Leafs.
I had so much to say, but nobody to share it with. I had started my own little blog called puckheadsunited.blogspot.com, and decided to write little pieces about the Toronto Maple Leafs and post them online. Of course this blog never went anywhere, but it was a nice little placeholder for my content.
Anyways, today I was looking through my Facebook memories and came across an article I wrote two years ago today on the Leafs logo change. This was my first so-called “hype” article that I had written, and it was smack-dab in the middle of the Leafs’ brutal, yet rewarding 2015-16 season in which they finished dead last.
The article essentially talked about how the logo change meant so much more than simply a new picture on the front of the Leafs jersey. But two years ago today, we knew nothing about what was to come. Let’s revisit what’s taken place since they revealed their new face of the franchise.
Exhibit A: A New Way of Drafting
The 2015-16 season ended, and as funny as this may sound, many Leafs fans couldn’t be happier. I mean, come on. The team had Leo Komarov playing on the top line and about half of their lineup included veterans on one year contracts. P.A. Parenteau, Shawn Matthias, and Daniel Winnik to name a few. Any rational fan with even the tiniest bit of hockey sense knew that this team was going nowhere, especially considering they didn’t have a core of sorts.
The farm was stocked though, which was something Leafs fans weren’t used to. They had Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and Travis Dermott highlighting their top prospects, rather than Tyler Biggs, Jesse Blacker, and Stuart Percy.
And that wasn’t even including the biggest apple of them all.
On April 30th, 2016, the draft lottery took place and the Leafs won it, earning the right to the first overall pick, and therefore the right to select now-number one centre Auston Matthews, who spent his draft year playing in Switzerland among men and experienced pros. And with a final total of 46 points in 36 games, he fit right in.
Exhibit B: New Management
The Leafs selected Matthews. So now what? The 2016-17 season hadn’t started, for all we knew Matthews could have been a massive bust and the Leafs could have been back at square one.
Instead, the Leafs would have their best offensive season as a team. Six different players would tally over 50 points and they would make the playoffs in a full season for the first time since 2004.
Not only that, new head coach Mike Babcock would work with players who had rocky development instead of throw them into his dog house, and they would have career years. This would include Nazem Kadri, who would score 31 goals and total over 60 points for a career high. Another example is Jake Gardiner, a notorious scapegoat who would put up over 40 points.
Kadri was a seventh overall pick in 2009 by the Maple Leafs yet took seven years to truly break out. Why is this? Oh yeah, because under the old management Kadri was constantly being juggled between the AHL and the NHL and any time he would make a mistake, he would see demoted minutes and would be left to work out his issues on his own.
Exhibit C: The Concept of Patience
Let’s head back to May of 2015 real quick. Everybody remembers Babcock’s press conference after being hired as head coach, right? He preached patience and warned fans that there would be pain, but that it was all part of a process.
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The Leafs tried a tactic opposite to this back in 2008 when Brian Burke was GM. They immediately dealt draft picks and prospects in exchange for stars such as Phil Kessel, Dion Phaneuf, and Joffrey Lupul. Did this work out? Absolutely not.
The Leafs could have easily dealt Nylander or Marner for stars such as Shea Weber, but instead, they took the patient route and let their rookies develop.
Now, they have almost an entire home grown core and are about to make the playoffs for the second year in a row, while teams such as the Buffalo Sabres are still struggling to stay out of the basement, despite starting their own rebuild years before the Leafs did.
So, what did we learn from this?
The logo change wasn’t just a minor transaction to forget about within a week. The new logo symbolized a newer, better, different way of running the ship. New management with a new plan and new bodies. When I wrote the piece similar to this back in 2016, nothing was confirmed. Nobody could have guessed the Leafs would be in this position right away. But as I’m writing this exactly two years later, things are looking up. The new logo was the turn of the tide. It officially symbolized a new way of running things of which would hopefully turn this team into a contender, and so far, it’s paying off.
Next: Leafs Ought to Trade for Galchenyuk
Trust the process, it will all pay off in the end.