SPORTS
Monday, November 17, 2014 13
Why the Toronto Maple Leafs have not been able
to win the Stanley Cup for nearly half a century
Part three of three
kenneth cheak kwan lam › staff writer
I
f the leafs are serious about changing their
fortune, management needs to endure a painful full-scale rebuild. I am not suggesting that
the Leafs should tank intentionally (particularly since finishing last will not ensure getting the
1st overall selection with the implementation of the
draft lottery); rather, I am preaching that the organization should be patient and focus on drafting
young talent and invest in player development, especially given that the NHL does not have a cap on how
much a team can spend in this area (meaning that
the team can make use of its financial resources and
hire many more top scouts than small market teams
so as to identify talents at the amateur-level that the
franchise should pay close attention to and/or possibly draft down the road). Comprehensive scouting
reports can then be composed for each prospective
draftee.
Generational talents (e.g., Wayne Gretzky, Mario
Lemieux, and Sidney Crosby) are obvious targets that
all scouting departments should be able to identify
with relative ease given that the skill levels of these
special players are head and shoulders above the level
of competition (e.g., Gretzky had seventy goals and
112 assists for a total of 182 points in sixty-four games
for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds; Lemieux had 133
goals and 149 assists for a total of 282 points in seventy games for the Laval Voisions in the 1983-1984
season; Crosby had sixty-six goals and 102 assists
for a total of 168 points in sixty-two games for the
Rimouski Oceanic in the 2004-2005 season).
Where elite-scouting pays off is the ability to
unearth hidden gems or the diamonds-in-the-rough
(e.g., the ability to draft a top-end player whom other
teams have passed on in the late rounds of NHL Entry
Drafts). The Detroit Red Wings is the model organization in this regard as the team successfully drafted
Nicklas Lidstrom (with the fifty-third overall pick in
the third round of the 1989 NHL Entry Draft), Pavel
Datsyuk (with the 171st overall pick in the si