For a middle 6 player, absolutely

eeeeeeeeekk

GMs get way too much credit for good draft picks, and way too much criticism for bad ones. It really is an organizational effort to draft players.

Rielly was a great pick. Kadri was pretty solid too (or was that not him).

Point is, something fell apart in that dressing room after the kessel trade. I’m not going to be too quick to blame burkie for that. He wasn’t a great GM, but i don’t think people should be saying that people on this forum are more knowledgeable based off his tenure in toronto

Well then i suppose you watch soccer instead. Wrong site bud

bruins issue is depth past the first line, if he was great, then it wouldnt be an issue, closer to 3rd line player then 2nd line, would you consider zach hyman great? prob not but he had better num,bers than debrusk

Seems like a match made in heaven!

- Thornton has never drunk from the Cup so he signs a 1-year deal with the Leafs, who haven't won a playoff series since 2004.
- Leafs haven't won a playoff series since 2004, so they sign proven playoff performer Joe Tho... oh, wait - never mind.

As a bruins fan who is intensely critical of management, I’m really happy with Debrusk. The 27 goals in 68 games shows a flash of what he can do as a goal scorer. He’s got a net drive ability that seems to have become very rare in the NHL, if he gets a smidge stronger, he’ll have a power move to the net that leads to a lot of goals.

true, I forgot about kadri, that's another one. still though, 7th overall. He barely had any success stories, let alone later in the draft. It is an organizational thing, but still - as a GM, you gotta have steals in the draft if you wanna be competitive, and he was never able to deliver on that in his 5 years here

I agree, anyone who actually thinks they are more knowledgeable about hockey than Brian Burke is out of their mind.

you're right, the leafs will never ever win another playoff series again

there is a very small amount of teams that cant chirp the leafs and the oilers are one of them, theyve had way more high draft picks then the leafs and they still suck, absolutely delusional its

I have them as a contender. I think there are 2 or 3 cup contenders, and i have them in the tier below with 5 or 6 teams. And any given year a team from that lower tier can make a run (see Dallas last year).

Obviously until they stack up some playoff wins people are just going to write them off as busts (like Washington for several years), but IMO they would have beaten Boston if not for the Kadri suspension (and Boston went to the cup), and CLB benefitted more than anyone last year by the break considering they had the most injuries in the 19/20 season. They were a different team in the playoffs, and gave TB a pretty good run as well, every TB win was by 1 goal, two games went to OT, including a 5OT. Toronto lost a key dman, and shot 2% at 5v5, and still likely should have won the series. So it's not like they are losing to Detroit or Ottawa in the playoffs each year.

So, personally I'm not overreacting to the these perceived playoff failures the way that 95% of fans seem to, and I'm fine with keeping the core together, but I could be way too optimistic.

Also, you are not using the word literally correctly.

That proven layoff performer lead his team to a cup final in 2016.

He could have really wrong instead of Kadri. The guy taken after him played 1 NHL game. Connor Brown was a pretty good late pick.

but consider who they could have taken in a very stacked draft

I dont think the leafs should be taking any advice from old Burkie (great hair), but this isnt a bad deal for them. Ellis is a great Dman and would improve this team immediately. It would suck to move Nylander cause he's really good, but it's not like they can move MM or JT

You shouldn’t over react to the playoff bubble loss.
You shouldn’t under react to the fact that the leafs just weren’t good last year even before covid.

Kyle connor, sure. Chabot, yup. Barzal, not a fan, and want to part of that player.

They made three picks, they totally whiffed on two of them. Debrusk is worth of people picked in that spot.

If you guys are wondering why TSN and Sportsnet focus on the Leafs so much, this is why.

This thread is an hour old, has 140 replies and nearly 700 views. This isn't even a new discussion.

thing is, a lot of these guys didn't really do much until after burke was gone. Idk whether it was poor drafting or poor development. Brown didn't even debut until 1-2 years into the shanny/lou/babs administration, who gets more credit for the end result? The guy who picked him or the guys who came after and developed him into an NHL player

knowing the leafs at the time, it wouldn't surprise me if burke didn't have any good development to work with lol

it's always about the leafs

Burke flaunted the Kadri pick in Bryan Murray’s face just before he made it because Ottawa was targeting Kadri.

They didn't have the best offense in the league last year, they were 3rd. They did go on an unsustainable tear in December / January, but predictably this didn't last long.

October: 3.50 (8th)
November: 3.07 (15th)
December: 4.08 (1st)
January: 4.00 (4th)
February: 3.13 (12th)
March: 1.25 (30th)

Besides, their offense has been downgraded for next year in an effort to get some semblance of balance. Maybe cut the hyperbole a bit.

Awesome discussion though. Burkie is awesome.

They played their best hockey under Keefe.

They need better maturity/consistency/team defence/goaltending.

They've gone to great lengths to bring in some more vet leadership, they've added 3 new bodies to the backend (with one being a legit Top 4), they'll have a full season with a capable backup (and 2 solid options backing him up).

Team defence/play style will hopefully be improved considering it's being implemented day 1 of the season, not half way through a western road trip.

IMO it would be foolish to break up the core 4 without seeing how this team defends after all the changes this off-season (player and philosophy).