4 Reasons Why Toronto Maple Leafs Succeeded and Sabres Didn’t

The Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres used to be the laughing stocks of the Eastern Conference, but instead only Buffalo wears that crown today.

Over the past decade, the Toronto Maple Leafs stock has risen, whereas the Buffalo Sabres have performed like Enron.

Both of these franchises were in the exact same spot and seemed destined to rebuild at a similar pace, but instead the Buffalo Sabres continue be irrelevant.

After missing the 24-team playoff tournament, as shown in the tweet above, the Sabres decided to fire Jason Botterill and hire Kevyn Adams. Sure, Adams was a former-NHLer and understands the game but he has zero G.M. experience, so it’ll be interesting to see how this move goes for them again.

As the Sabres continue to falter and draft in the lottery year-after-year, the Leafs are now Stanley Cup contenders. Even after having a below average season filled with injuries to a lot of their top players, the Leafs still managed to finish third in their division and make the playoffs.

The Buffalo Sabres on the other hand missed the playoffs for the eight consecutive season.

The unfortunate part about the Sabres missing the playoffs is that they didn’t even come close to making it again. Whenever the team goes on a win-streak and looks ready to make the playoffs, they find a way to go on an even bigger losing streak and lose all hope.

When you think of sad sports cities, it used to be Cleveland that comes top of mind, but instead it might have to be Buffalo. The Sabres have never won a championship and neither has the Buffalo Bills, who haven’t even won a playoff game since 1995.

Toronto was always known as a sad sports town as well, but in recent years, the city has seen Toronto FC win an MLS Cup, Toronto Argonauts win a Grey Cup, Toronto Marlies win a Calder Cup and most importantly, the Toronto Raptors win a Larry O’Brien Trophy.

Toronto Maple Leafs fans are hopeful that their favourite team is next on that list of champions, but everyone should be thankful the franchise didn’t go the way the Buffalo Sabres went.

Let’s look at four reasons why the Toronto Maple Leafs have been able to turn their franchise around, compared to the Buffalo Sabres.

#3. Management

The Buffalo Sabres weren’t always a laughing stock.

Under architect Darcy Regier, they made the Stanley Cup Finals in 1999 and had two Eastern Conference Finals appearances in the 2000s

Regier is the most accomplished G.M. in Buffalo Sabres history, despite never winning a Stanley Cup, and after missing the playoffs four times in the past six seasons, the Sabres fired him in 2013.

Expecting that the firing would create a spark for the Sabres, the team has yet to make the playoffs since his departure. Instead the team has now gone through two G.M.’s in six years.

Tim Murray, who was hired to replace Reigier, made a few great moves offensively acquiring Ryan O’Rielly and Kyle Okposo, while tanking for Jack Eichel. If the Sabres had won the Draft Lottery and acquired Connor McDavid instead of Eichel, maybe Murray would still have his job.

However, Murray never addressed his defensive issues and didn’t hire the right coach, so that was the biggest reason towards his demise.

Botterill, who then filled Murray’s shoes didn’t do much better. He also couldn’t find a coach to fit in Buffalo and couldn’t help with goaltending or secondary scoring to compliment Eichel. He thought he found it by signing Jeff Skinner to an eight-year, $72-million contract, but that may turn into one of the worst contracts in the entire NHL.

As the Sabres management folded, the Leafs succeeded. Starting with Brendan Shanahan at the top, the team took a brand new approach to build out a solid front-office, which would then translate to on-ice success.

Shanahan hired Lou Lamoriello who did a fantastic job gutting the Leafs roster and rebuilding from scratch. Lamoriello was able to acquire a number-one goaltender in Frederick Andersen, draft Auston Matthews and extend the contracts of Zach Hyman and Morgan Rielly to team-friendly deals.

Once Lamoriello’s contract expired, the team already had a succession plan in place by hiring analytics guru Kyle Dubas who had the opportunity of learning from Lamoriello for the past three seasons. He was groomed and ready to prove his capability as a great G.M. in the NHL and has done so already by signing his young core long-term, in addition to acquiring John Tavares.

While the Buffalo Sabres management has been a revolving door with continual disappointment from the Pegula family, the Leafs have one of the best front-offices in the NHL.

#2. Coaching

The Buffalo News wrote a great column a few months ago talking about the greatest what-ifs in Buffalo sports history, and of course Mike Babcock’s name is on there.

When the Leafs fired Randy Carlyle during the 2014-15 season, the team was actually in a playoff spot. However, the team went on one of the worst streaks in team history under interim coach Peter Horachek and found themselves drafting fourth overall.

After that embarrassing display of hockey, Horachek was let go as well and the Leafs needed a new coach. About a month later, Babcock didn’t come to terms on an extension with the Detroit Red Wings and one of the best coaches in the NHL was now a Free Agent.

The Sabres and the Leafs were the two favourite destinations for Babcock because they were opportunities for him to turn a young franchise around and start fresh. The Sabres had just drafted Jack Eichel and seemed destined for the up-and-up, whereas the Leafs were a dumpster-fire, but had the resources in place to rebuild and turn the team into a winner.

The Leafs swooped in and gave Babcock a $50 million contract and that was it. He was now a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs and was a key reason towards the team rebuilding so fast. Sure, he was stubborn at times, but he was a great hockey mind and helped take a team from 30th place to three straight playoff seasons.

As mentioned in the Buffalo News article, this is what Babcock said about joining Toronto, instead of Buffalo:

“It was a hard decision. We went back and forth so many times trying to figure out the right thing to do. “If you don’t think Terry Pegula is a star, you’re mistaken. If you think Tim Murray and I didn’t have a great relationship, that’s wrong, too. In the end, I wanted to coach the Maple Leafs. This was the best fit for my family. … (The Sabres) have got lots of great things. In the end, I couldn’t make it go for my family and I wanted to be the coach of the Maple Leafs. That’s it.”

Just like that, the Leafs had a Stanley Cup champion coach in Babcock, and even though the Leafs recently fired him, they replaced him with an up-and-coming coach in Sheldon Keefe who has won everywhere he’s coached.

Since the Sabres missed out on Babcock, they replaced Ted Nolan with another Stanley Cup winning coach in Dan Bylsma. Unfortunately that relationship didn’t last too long and he was fired two years later and replaced by Phil Housley.

The coaching carousel in Buffalo has continued since the Housley hiring, as two years after his arrival, he was fired and replaced by Ralph Krueger. Can we also mention that Krueger was out of professional hockey for five years working overseas with the football club Southampton, so if the Sabres miss the playoffs once again next year, they may have to find another coach.

It’s crazy to see how different the Sabres may have been with Babcock in charge, but that’s definitely another reason why the Leafs were able to leap frog in the Sabres in a rebuild.

#1. Drafting and Developing

These two aspects are some of the most important pieces to a NHL franchise.

In order for a team to sustain growth, the team must have a good farm team that’s developing prospects to replace current players when they get too expensive or under-perform.

Before we compare drafting, let’s look at the developmental process.

Ever since Kyle Dubas was hired as Assistant G.M. of the Toronto Maple Leafs and G.M. of the Toronto Marlies, the development of the organization has soared. Dubas continued to groom players in the Marlies and once they made the leap to the Maple Leafs, they were ready to perform.

Every season, there seems to be at least two-three former Marlies that make the jump and become everyday players in the NHL and that’s all thanks to the development system the team has created.

Since the AHL season was cancelled this year, the Marlies have made the playoffs in eight straight seasons, including one Calder Cup championship, and four Conference Championship appearances.

The Buffalo Sabres farm team (Rochester Americans), haven’t made it past Round One of the playoffs since 2005. Although you might not think that AHL success means a lot towards the NHL team’s success, it actually does.

Those meaningful games that each player performs in during the AHL playoffs sets them up for the NHL. Crowds get bigger and games get more meaningful and it helps makes the transition so much easier. That’s why there are so many Marlies from that 2018 Championship team that are currently excelling on the Leafs roster.

Although developing players is so important, that development starts with the draft.

Here’s an outlook on the Sabres and Leafs best draft picks since 2014.

Buffalo Sabres:

• Sam Reinhart (2nd overall, 2014)
• Jack Eichel (2nd overall, 2015)
• Alex Nylander (8th overall, 2016)
• Casey Mittlestadt (8th overall, 2017)
• Rasmus Dahlin (1st overall, 2018)
• Dylan Cozens (7th overall, 2019)

Toronto Maple Leafs

• William Nylander (8th overall, 2014)
• Mitch Marner (4th overall, 2015)
• Travis Dermott (34th overall, 2015)
• Auston Matthews (1st overall, 2016)
• Rasmus Sandin (29th overall, 2018)
• Nick Robertson (53rd overall, 2019)

It’s so funny that even their drafting is comparable with both teams selecting a Nylander and a Rasmus.

Of those six players, the only players the Leafs would rather have from Buffalo would be Rasmus Dahlin and Jack Eichel, but instead they have Mitch Marner and Rasmus Sandin from those draft classes, which isn’t too bad either.

Even as the Leafs have continued to make the playoffs, they’ve been able to steal prospects like Sandin and Nick Robertson late in the draft, who will be full-time NHL players as early as next season.

Other players the Leafs drafted in that time-frame like Timothy Liljegren, Adam Brooks and Joseph Woll didn’t even crack the top-six of Leafs draft picks and they are all bound to be full-time NHLers as well.

Drafting and developing is so crucial, but until the Sabres figure that out the same way the Maple Leafs did, it may be another few years until they make it back to the playoffs and become relevant again.