Saturday, June 21, 2008

What price victory?

I like the deal to move up and grab Schenn. But I couldn't help but think about the price tag: two good draft picks to move up from #7 to #5. That's a lot. But it was necessary, because the Leafs had the #7 pick in a draft with five (or six, if you consider Filatov signable) elite players.

A little refresher:

The Islanders had 79 points last year. The Leafs, thanks to their traditional late-season surge after they were already all but eliminated from the playoffs, had 83 points.

You no doubt remember how that final stretch unfolded: Toskala being played into the ground, the veterans getting all the ice time, no look at the younger kids, no Raycroft until the very end. And all because Paul Maurice was coaching for his next employer instead of his current one.

So let's take a moment today to thank Maurice. They say you can't put a price on winning, but now we can. Two more meaningless victories, four more lousy points, at a cost of a second rounder and a third.

Good work, Paul.




1 comment:

  1. once we lost to philly and were all but officially eliminated, you're right, raycrap should have been in there.

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