What a great day to be a Toronto Maple Leafs fan!
When I went to bed last night, the Toronto Maple Leafs were the laughingstock of the NHL. Now, just 12 hours later, they have been passed in the standings for BIGGEST JOKE by not one, but two other NHL teams.
The Ottawa Senators – apparently looking for something more crazy and embarrassing to say than “I believe in QAnon” – settled on “We’ve hired Pierre McGuire.”
Then, only hours later, the Edmonton Oilers were sitting around wondering how to restore Peter Chiarelli’s reputation (one assumes) when they hit on the perfect idea: trade tangible assets for arguably the worst player in the NHL.
It is truly a day that makes you go hmmmmmm.
Toronto Maple Leafs Look Better By Comparison
The Leafs – despite mostly being in this position due to bad luck – have blown so many sure-things that they have somehow lost the goodwill of their fans despite having two of the five or ten best players in the entire world on their roster.
They recently set the record by going the most days between championships, which really cemented their status as the laughingstock of the league.
But then it turns out that a couple of their fellow Canadian teams just couldn’t stand by and watch their most hated rival be humiliated all summer long. Like the great friends they apparently are, they had to step in to remind everyone that even the Leafs have not sunk all the way to the bottom.
Pierre McGuire? Are you kidding me? While the TV viewers of North America thank you, what exactly were you thinking? “Hey the NHL is trending towards exactly the thing this ignorant fool constantly embarrasses himself by making fun of, let’s hire him!”
And you will never guess what the first thing I read about when Pierre was hired. If you had “a quote praising Nikita Zaitsev” then you would be wrong because no one would….nope I’m kidding, that’s one of the first guys he mentioned.
Of course it was.
As for the Edmonton Oilers, they have made a guy who writes about the Leafs feel sorry for the franchise that has Connor McDavid.
Duncan Keith, traded to EDM, has put up hideous results for the past several seasons in a steady decline consistent with a player in his late thirties. The Oil are praying that a smaller role will spark a huge improvement - it's a major gamble. #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/28bksotACz
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) July 12, 2021
Caleb Jones isn’t exactly a future star, but he is a 23 year old defenseman who makes the league minimum and who is better than Duncan Keith. Even straight up, this trade would be stupid, but it’s not straight up, the Oilers also paid a third round for reasons I couldn’t even begin to guess at.
You might reasonably think then that they paid the 3rd rounder in order for the Hawks to retain some salary.
You would then obviously be more qualified to run a hockey team than Ken Holland, but you’d also be mistaken. The Oilers are PAYING a 3rd. It might make sense for the Hawks to pay Edmonton a 3rd round pick to take Keith off his hands, considering he is overpaid by his entire $5.5 million cap hit.
But no. The Hawks retain nothing and subsequently the Oilers are now the answer to the question of who made the worst trade in the NHL since the original Taylor Hall Trade?
What I want to know is how did the Oilers pull this trade off while (I assume) they were in a bidding war for the services of Pierre McGuire?
Bottom line: Great day to be a Toronto Maple Leafs fan.