Quoting: palhal
One difference the Avs and Knights have won the Cup and have other longer playoff runs. Leafs just one playoff round win, and worse few quality picks in the 24, 25, 26 drafts and what have the Leafs got to show for it.....McCabe for one more. season. Leafs prospects pool in ranked in the lower 20% . I just can't figure how anyone can say, the Leafs trades/draft have helped the team in the past six years.
For all competitive teams thats what you got to do.
Look at VGK this year went all in and lost R1 but won a cup the previous year doing almost the same. TBL goes all in almost yearly besides this one making crazy trades to try and get more cups.
These are the gambles you pull but as a competitive team you need to do em. Yes you dont need to go all in but you need to give the boyz a chance. Dubas did it last year and it got them to R2 but then the big boyz decided not to show up till they were down 3-0 and we know what happened
And lets say Leafs didnt make trade what good would these prospects have done more so than the players traded for?
ROR, Muzzin, etc were all welcomed additions but the problem wasnt with them it was the big 4 not doing much when needed besides Willy.
In the end were not a wait and see team were a go for it now and win as we got Matthews in his prime rn
We still have Cowen, Minten, Grebyokin, Knies, Robertson, etc were fine
Should not be focusing on the prospects (except Cowen) should be focusing on the now