A Plan, a plan, Leafs Nation for a plan

As fans of the Maple Leafs, we all know that the fan base is  wide and deep. Within a group so large, you would think it would be difficult to find consensus, but there is one thing that most of us would agree on - a frustration with the various ownership groups and management teams over the past 47 years who couldn't seem to settle on a plan and stick to it.

If you have been following the Toronto media lately, you no doubt have read that the board of MLSE has given team president Brendan Shanahan the go ahead to tear it down and do a rebuild.

On the surface this sounds good, but never actually having seen one performed on their team, the fan base can be forgiven for not understanding exactly what a rebuild would entail. Does it mean finding new teams for "the core", does it mean finding new teams for every single player who has worn a Maple Leaf sweater this year, or does it mean some variation of those two options?

As a bit of an arm chair GM, I would like to put forward my own plan - a plan which I believe would mesh nicely with the current direction our Maple Leafs seem to be headed.


Find new teams for everyone on the current Maple Leaf roster over the age of 25.

That's it. A deceptively simple plan which is incredibly easy to follow and implement. If you will, foolproof.

Looking at the current Maple Leaf roster, the above plan would mean new teams would have to be found for the following players:

1. Jonathan Bernier
2. David Booth
3. Tyler Bozak
4. David Clarkson
5. Cody Franson
6. Korbinian Holzer
7. Olli Jokinen
8. Phil Kessel
9. Leo Komarov
10. Joffrey Lupul
11. Dion Phaneuf
12. Roman Polak
13. James Reimer
14. Stephane Robidas
15. Mike Santorelli
16. Trevor Smith
17. Daniel Winnick

Finding new teams for 17 of your current 23 man roster certainly qualifies as "cleaning house", but is not very realistic.

In fact, there are some serviceable players on the above list of 17. Keeping a few of them around could prove useful, to provide a good example of how to play the "right way", to fill out roster spaces, and most importantly, to provide ample time for all the youngsters coming in via the draft and/or trades to continue developing in minors - whether OHL or AHL.

Having made the first modification to the plan, this modification would yield a small list of players to keep:

1. Leo Komarov - plays the "right way".
2. Roman Polak - a good mentor for Morgan Rielly and/or Jake Gardiner.
3. James Reimer - a capable, NHL caliber goaltender.

But, the first modification to the above plan still yields a rather lengthy list of players to find new teams for:

1. Jonathan Bernier
2. David Booth
3. Tyler Bozak
4. David Clarkson
5. Cody Franson
6. Korbinian Holzer
7. Olli Jokinen
8. Phil Kessel
9. Joffrey Lupul
10. Dion Phaneuf
11. Stephane Robidas
12  Mike Santorelli
13. Trevor Smith
14. Daniel Winnick

Looking down the above list of 14, it can be determined that, based on contract status, the list should be split into two new lists.

The first list (List A) has a bit of a time constraint as the players on it are becoming UFAs at the end of this season. Therefore, new teams would have to be found before the March 2 2015 trade deadline for:

1. David Booth
2. Cody Franson
3. Korbinian Holzer
4. Olli Jokinen
5  Mike Santorelli
6. Trevor Smith
7. Daniel Winnick

I am not going to speculate on what the relative value of the above 7 players is and what exactly the return would be for each, there are plenty of other sites doing that, but let's assume that it would most likely be some combination of prospects and/or picks numbering around 7.

The second list (List B) would have its own constraints, but time would not be one of them. Therefore, more time could be taken and/or options explored before new teams would have to be found for these players:

1. Jonathan Bernier
2. Tyler Bozak
3. David Clarkson
4. Phil Kessel
5. Joffrey Lupul
6. Dion Phaneuf
7. Stephane Robidas

Again, I am not going to speculate on what the relative value of the above 7 players is and what exactly the return would be for each, but let's assume that it would most likely be some combination of players and/or prospects and/or picks numbering around 8.

There you have it.

A simple plan having a simple first goal - find new homes for the list of players on List A.

It will be interesting to see how successful Leafs management is leading up to and through Trade Deadline day on March 2nd.