Does winning draft lottery change Leafs' plans moving forward?

0:00 Listen, there there is a there is a world

0:02 in which the Leafs get much better next year.

0:06 Like not not to the point where it's a you're a cup contender.

0:10 This year they were bad from the hop.

0:12 It wasn't a good year.

0:13 They had injuries.

0:14 Their best players didn't play that great.

0:16 You get healthy.

0:17 Yes.

0:17 Like there is a world where the next two years

0:20 they are pushing for the playoffs and maybe they get in.

0:24 And if they if that world exists for them,

0:28 this is as good as it could possibly get.

0:32 Like it you still you look back on the trade and you're like,

0:34 "All right, we're giving up

0:36 Fraser Minton and whatever that pick's going to be in the future."

0:39 But if you add Gavin McKenna and you become a playoff team next year,

0:44 that's a that's exactly it's it's the best trade-off you could get.

0:49 So case in point and what they used at the narrative

0:52 at the end of the season was Austin Matthews pointed

0:55 to the Boston Bruins off year bottomed out came back

1:00 this year and everybody played better and they made the playoffs.

1:04 I think that's that's probably the goal

1:07 or the at least narrative of those guys starting what they

1:11 said at the end of I'm just going off

1:12 of what Austin Matthews said in his year end presser.

1:16 bad year, but we can, you know, we can bounce right back.

1:19 That that's probably what they're going to circle and say if Matthews is like,

1:24 "Go and get some players to Jaca.

1:26 You've got Willie coming back.

1:27 You've got nice.

1:29 There's lots of work to be done,

1:30 but if you revamp the D, you're going to have a high pick.

1:34 You're going to have some money to spend.

1:36 That that that might be the payoff on a one year

1:41 Yeah.

1:40 of of bad luck or bad whatever a terrible team.

1:44 Yeah.

1:44 They didn't play well.

1:44 I mean, listen, exactly.

1:46 they finished bottom five,

1:48 but you know, we'll see what happens with Craig Barubu,

1:51 what they end up doing there.

1:52 You know, as of now,

1:53 it looks like he he may return and um if that's the case, then then so be it.

1:57 We'll see what he does with the roster and how he approaches the team.

2:02 Yeah.

2:01 But if they go in a different direction, you know,

2:04 if you have a a if if Tanv can return, your goalies can stay healthy.

2:08 You pick the right two guys.

2:10 Again, this is a glass half full scenario,

2:13 right?

2:12 Goalies, let's say it's stolen wall, just for argument sake.

2:15 Those are your two guys and they're healthy

2:16 and they play like they did last year.

2:20 Tanv returns and can be a quality top four defenseman for you.

2:25 Maybe not at his best.

2:26 Exactly.

2:27 But stay healthy.

2:27 We'll believe it when we see it,

2:28 but I'm painting a glass half full picture here.

2:32 Stallers and wall are healthy and play well.

2:34 Tanv returns and is healthy.

2:38 Turn over the D a little bit more.

2:41 Make a trade here or there and McKenna ends up playing for you 80 games.

2:44 I'm not going to move off my stance about how much work this team needs.

2:48 I'm not I'm not saying are they going to Stanley.

2:50 You've gone from very optimistic as from one draft lottery because two

2:55 hours ago we're all saying how difficult it's going to be to compete.

2:59 Hear me out.

2:59 I've never said that they're guaranteed to be awful next year though.

3:02 Well, we've all discussed how big of a hill they

3:04 have to climb to even get remotely better next year.

3:07 And John Cha has still got to prove that he's

3:09 capable of doing all of this kind of stuff.

3:11 Here's something else you can look at it on the other side.

3:14 Maybe this pick is accelerated if you are going to do a rebuild and you

3:18 are going to move out keep pieces and you've already got the first overall pick.

3:26 You move 34 and 88 for high draft picks, young prospect.

3:31 Now all of a sudden that potentially could

3:33 accelerate what you're trying to do in a rebuild.

3:39 Again, I agree with that.

3:39 I I'm just saying like you're talking about hey

3:42 2 hours ago we're I'm just saying let's look

3:44 at the other side of the fence that if they're

3:46 forced that if 34 puts his hand up and says

3:48 I'm you know Quinn Hughes you name or you

3:51 know Matthew Kachchuck or I'm just looking I I'm going

3:54 to move on to somewhere else you can get

3:57 a king's ransom for that player young picks or picks

4:01 players all of that type of stuff then you

4:03 go to other players and go this is what

4:05 we're doing we've got the number one 10 pick

4:07 and we've got young players coming X Y and Z

4:11 just what Vancouver did for Quinn Hughes the BM

4:14 and guys like that now all of a sudden you

4:16 you can turn your team very quickly you don't

4:19 have Austin Matthews if he decid again this is just

4:22 no I know but it's very reasonable I think you're on to something here

4:26 it could help expedite if you're if you've

4:28 decided I'm going to move away from those

4:31 players there's a different chip in play where you could

4:33 possibly veer off the road and go in a different direction

4:36 all I'm saying is there's options now with a number one Now,

4:38 where I would stop that is I don't think

4:43 ownership has any stomach for that, right?

4:45 Like that's and that's maybe why Chaik and Sundine

4:49 are here as opposed to possibly other options

4:52 who may have come in here and said

4:53 regardless of what just happened with the draft lottery,

4:55 I think we need to blow this up and you got to give me four or five years,

5:01 right?

5:00 As we've stated, if Matthews is the one that instigates that, right,

5:06 then it could come into view for them.

5:09 Like if Matthews if he goes to them and goes,

5:13 I'm I want a different scenery or I want to play somewhere else or I don't

5:17 think this is going in the right direction

5:18 or I'm not going to sign in the future.

5:20 All these are riffs.

5:21 But if he does that, I think what they can look at now is say,

5:26 "Okay, well, we got this guy now.

5:28 We're gonna trade for all these pieces,

5:31 right?

5:31 Let's kind of reset our plan regardless of what we

5:33 thought we wanted to do or we're going to do, right?

5:35 It does open up the door where all of a sudden you bring

5:38 in McKenna and three or four other prospects and three or four other pegs,

5:44 right?

5:43 You could be two or three years from like

5:45 a nucleus of young players that really give you an opportunity

5:49 like Anaheim, like in the future.

5:50 Exactly.

5:51 Calgary is trying to do all of that type of stuff.

5:54 Keep in mind this Landon DuPont is a year away.

5:57 Like that's a defenseman who's a stud and going to be I

6:01 by all accounts going to be the clear-cut number one like next year.

6:04 Next year.

6:05 Now they don't have their first round pick now next year.

6:07 But if you're But if you're trading for one

6:11 Yeah, that's my point.

6:11 What if you are trading for picks and players and one

6:15 of those ends up being player X and or or pick X?

6:21 Like that's the thing that you can get very creative here.

6:26 There's nothing negative about getting

6:28 the first overall pick and having options.

6:30 And now what this has done is given them a little bit more option.

6:35 it still having a fifth pick or a fourth pick was very strong or even losing it.

6:41 You just you you've had to alter your plan.

6:44 This is the the the one question I would have for Matts or John

6:47 Chika or Keith P or whoever's in that war room right now is

6:52 did this outcome change a potential thought process of where you want to go?

6:59 I agree with you.

7:00 Yeah.

7:01 And the fact that now the picks are

7:02 again gone in the future which the viewpoint was

7:05 well that you know you you want to be a good team so those don't turn in.

7:09 It just makes it tough an easier pill to swallow.

7:11 You got it some kind of nugget here.

7:13 Who knows how how much gold is in it and it's just like okay we're

7:17 going to chew on it the next two years but we got the first overall pick.

7:20 Wow.

7:20 It's pretty incredible that 10 years almost

7:23 to the day they won the Matthews lottery.

7:27 We're in a situation where today there's reports we don't

7:30 know if he wants to return or what his future

7:32 is and now this next pick comes up and I

7:35 guess the lesson is have high hopes, high expectations, but

7:41 just getting the first overall pick doesn't guarantee you a Stanley Cup.

7:44 A lot more that has to go into it.

7:46 Maybe it also gives you like, okay,

7:49 we're turning the page and this is the beginning of a new era,

7:52 regardless of what it is.

7:54 Yesterday was the beginning of a new era, the John Chaika era.

7:56 as a manager.

7:57 Matt Sundine involved as well.

7:59 I don't even know what his role is.

8:00 What the hell?

8:01 Nobody really knows.

8:02 Executive director of senior advising and call him president or tight pony JP.

8:07 Yeah.

8:08 Tight pony JP.

8:09 But that yesterday was the new regime.

8:13 Today there's another piece to add to it.

8:16 Well, like you're talking even from a salesman

8:18 standpoint like the this is again because Matthews

8:22 is here and Knander here and they have 10 years of being superstars in the city.

8:29 Yeah.

8:28 Unless this was the equivalent of the McDavid draft.

8:31 No one was going to come in and knock them off the marquee, right?

8:34 But let's say they take McKenna.

8:36 Where does he rank in the pecking order of jersey sales, of intrigue?

8:41 Oh, he's the new shiny toy.

8:43 You know how that one goes.

8:44 Like it's just Yeah.

8:47 Don't forget this kid.

8:48 It was kind of a low-key season

8:49 in in Penn State because it was playing with men.

8:53 He he came on in the second half of the season,

8:55 but the season before that he was destroying the Western Hockey League.

8:58 Yeah.

8:58 Destroying highlight reels on TSN every night.

9:01 Like every night it was something different.

9:04 But he's got that kind of hype and it dissipated last

9:06 year because he went to college and was playing with grown men.

9:09 But yeah, who knows what this kid fight.

9:12 Yes, he did.

9:12 I don't mind that.

9:13 Good Western League boy.

9:16 Little dust up.

9:17 Ever since that fight, by all accounts, he took off as a player.

9:20 Yeah.

9:20 Well, showed he's got a little jam.

9:22 Don't mind that.

9:23 What a tank for the Leafs.

9:25 What a tank.

9:26 Perfected.

9:26 The dignified tank.

9:28 They have dominated the tank over the last 10 years.