I have stumbled on incontrovertible proof that the hockey gods hate the loser point

 This post was originally going to be about something else. As often happens, I got sidetracked and went down a rabbit hole. And I’m glad I did, because I appear to have found something very important.

I think I’ve discovered a relatively new but immutable law of the hockey universe, and I need to share it with you now because it could have crucial implications for the immediate future of two teams, starting as early as tonight.

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All 29 times the Leafs have traded away a first rounder, ranked from best to worst

I love trades and I love rankings, and I’m a Maple Leafs fan so it goes without saying that I love misery. For today’s post, I figured I’d combine all of those things into one piece, with a ranking of all the times that the Maple Leafs have traded away a first-round pick. After all, it feels like a timely topic right about now.

After some digging, I found there have been 29 separate trades in Leafs history in which they’ve traded away a total of 31 first-round picks, so I did what any normal person would do and ranked them all, from the ones that turned out best to worst.

Two things surprised me about that. First, 29 seems low. The Leafs seem to do this kind of thing a lot. I was pretty sure Brad Treliving had traded away 29 firsts on his own, although I guess the math doesn’t quite work out on that one. Give him time, guys, he’s working on it.

The second surprise was the best-to-worst part, since that implies that some of these trades have worked out in the Leafs’ favor. I didn’t think they’d all be disasters, mind you, because some of these are going to be boring draft floor swaps that nobody even remembers. But finding actual wins? Impossible. Or so I thought.

It goes without saying that we're doing this with total benefit of hindsight, which isn't fair to the GMs but too bad for them. Let's go on this journey together...

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NHL weekend rankings: These teams are who we thought they were (maybe)

The biggest story through the season’s first month or so was that nobody knew anything.

OK, sure, there were a few teams that stuck to the script. The Avs were good. The Predators were bad. But in between, it was chaos. Teams that nobody thought would be all that good were dominating. Teams we thought would be terrible were competitive, or better. And so many presumed contenders were struggling that you could barely hear the goal horns over the sounds of all the windows slamming shut.

It seemed to set up a wild season where you could just the preseason projections entirely. But then, over the last few weeks, something changed. Not entirely, and there are still plenty of surprises playing out. But doesn’t it feel like the hockey gods are trying hard to slam the brakes on this runaway season?

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Remembering five of the NHL's most important "changing of the guard" seasons

 Part of what’s made the first moth of this NHL season so much fun has been the youth movement, with young stars like Macklin Celebrini, Connor Bedard and Leo Carlsson all putting up gaudy offensive numbers that place them near the top of the scoring race.

It’s only been a month, so we don’t want to get too far out over our skis here. But it sure seems like we’re witnessing a shift in the league, with a new generation of forwards staking their claim to superstar status. That doesn’t mean the old guard is disappearing – as just one example, that grizzled old Nathan MacKinnon guy stills seems to be doing OK. But the next generation appears to have emphatically arrived, and that makes for an exciting time to be a hockey fan.

While we wait to see whether this is a more temporary blip or a truly seismic shift, I figured it could be a good time to look back at other seasons NHL history that saw the next generation kick down the door to the league’s top tier. Here are five times we saw what seemed to be a changing of the guard among the sport’s elite players, and whether it stuck.

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A guide to this year's Leafs season for Blue Jays fans who are just tuning in now

If you’re a Toronto sports fan, you’ve had a busy fall. You watched the Blue Jays stumble down the stretch in September, only to find their footing just in time to win the AL East on the regular season’s final day. Then you watched them handle the Yankees in the ALDS before coming back to beat the Mariners in a thrilling Game 7 classic in the ALCS. That led to one of the greatest World Series ever played, with the underdog Jays giving the fat cat Dodgers all they could handle before losing a heart-breaking winner-take-all showdown, literally coming just inches away from a championship.

After all of that, you probably needed some time off to recover. But now the snow has arrived, and it’s time to turn your attention back to that other blue-and-white team that’s still playing. Right, the Maple Leafs, that’s what they’re called. It’s time to start watching them again.

So, you may be wondering: How are the Leafs doing?

Let’s get you caught up, with my special guide to the Maple Leafs season for Blue Jays fans who haven’t been paying attention because of the whole agonizing championship near-miss thing. We’ll do this in a Q+A format, and by the end you’ll be back up to speed on everything you missed.

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