Quote:
Originally Posted by Mess
This opinion of yours based on years of past experience will not be well received. 
During the intermission Ron Maclean mentioned that Ottawa will begin the season with 4 new kids making the starting roster Mika Zibanejad (age 18), Jared Cowen (20), David Runblad (20), Stephane Da Costa (22).
So "play the kids" rather than "trade the kids" for instant help is not standard practice and in the past has turned out badly for us.. Names like Scott Neidermayer and Roberto Luongo etc selected with Leaf picks as proof that making sacrifices for instant help has consequences. |
I honor everyones opinion and I hope people honor my opinion. You and daveleaf have been with Leafs much longer than I have and seen a lot. Still sticking up with Leafs and contributing trough fan forums where lots of other people are much younger than you are. I respect that. I also respect that opinion if someone wants a full rebuild. Thou I think time for that went away long time ago.
I just hope you could respect other peoples opinions too. Burke has made mistakes during his tenure and he will make mistakes in the future too. There isn't perfect GMs in sports. Everyone makes mistakes. This way we are building our team might be wrong, but is the only way forward now. We have to look this trough.
I don't mind it because I like this way. Burke took proactive way rather than reactive and passive way like Edmonton or Ottawa. You say that we shouldn't trade in this point. Maybe we shouldn't, maybe we should. Burke has made few tremendous trades in past two seasons. All depends on what his going to do now.
I like his way to really build up this organization from the ground. JFJ put our scouting in shape and when Burke took over there have been more changes for better. We have better player development, I think our scouting is better and coaching is better. Though I don't like Wilson that much, but Allaire, Cronin and Gordon are good people. Our prospect pool is better, team on ice is better. We may argue if it's time to trade for proven players or not. I think Liles for 2nd was good trade, because I think we can trade him for 2nd at the deadline. My opinion is that we should not trade Gunnarsson away. In the end though everything depends who we get back. We are in the crossroads, I think our defense is mostly set. We have players we need in our organisation, same with goalies. Our forward group is not set, Connolly and Lupul are not long time solutions. We need help there. Is right time now, deadline, next summer or next season? I don't know. I trust Burke with that decision.
And I really like our way developing prospects better than Ottawas. Okay, you can throw them into fire right away. I rather develop them further and bring them when they're really ready. Bring Kadri up when his overall game is good enough, same with Frattin, Gardiner and Aulie. I think in Ottawas case Rundblad is ready, same with Cowen, but I don't really know if it's right decision to throw Zibanejad into NHL in this stage of his development.
