It’s a chicken/egg problem: because this organization is always lacking outside the top 6, they blow all their draft picks on depth players that cost a premium at the deadline. When the draft comes around, they’re desperately trying to recoup some picks so that they have something to draft, but since they’re always short early picks, the chances of landing an impact player are low.
It all stems from the top-down approach this team has had to filling out the roster: ditch Marner, sign JT to a discount, and start balancing out the lineup and maybe we don’t need to cough up picks every deadline for Laughtons and Folignos. -gravey
I disagree. If the Leafs never signed Tavares and kept on the path of keeping their own guys at lower contracts and drafting, they wouldn’t have been in this mess.
They saw a prized UFA that finally wanted to come to Toronto but they made him the 2nd highest paid player in the league when they had 3 of their own stars they had to sign AFTER he got that deal.
After that happened, the Leafs put themselves in a cycle of panic buying every deadline because the market is impatient and they death spiraled after that.
Keeping Tavares, even at a discount (look at how trash Duchene was in the playoffs for Dallas even at 3 million) is among the worst things they could do. For the same money, they’re better off with Rielly Smith (if he wants to come “home”) and trading Rielly.