Wednesday June 29, 2016.
A day of infamy that will live on forever in the minds of
Oilers fans (here & here) and Habs fans (here & here).
As Leafs fans we, and I assume you’re a Leafs fan if
you‘re on this site and reading this article, managed to escape Wednesday Bloody
Wednesday relatively unscathed with only the news that Steven Stamkos
had decided to skip heading to Free Agency and resign with his current team –
the Tampa Bay Lighting.
After having had time to take the pulse of Leafs nation
via reading the thousands of posts at the other various Leafs fan sites, I know
some of you are outraged, furious, or mad at Steven Stamkos and his decision
but I’m not. Well, maybe a little disappointed.
I’m here to tell you Steven Stamkos’ decision is not the end of
the Leafs world as we know it, but a firm affirmation that the current Leafs’
rebuild is in the hands of the best management group in the NHL today – Brendan
Shanahan, Lou Lamoriello, and Mike Babcock.
How do I know this?
Simply because I believe that the Shanahan, Lamoriello,
and Babcock management group had a plan going into their meeting with Steven
Stamkos during the pre-free agency window, and they stuck to it, Gone are the
desperation days of the previous Leafs’ management groups who felt they had to
bend over backwards and overpay free agents to come home to Toronto.
I firmly believe that the Leafs’ management group met
with Steven Stamkos and his camp on Tuesday June 28th and laid out their
plans for how they were going to proceed with the rebuild and what, generally,
they were prepared to pay a player of Stamkos caliber to come and be a part of
that rebuild. No promising of endless Brinks trucks of cash, or promises that
Stamkos would be the #1 Centre for the 7 year term of his contract – just a
simple and truthful explanation of their plan to rebuild the Leafs, a fair and
reasonable ball-park figure for actual dollars to be paid to Stamkos, and a
genuine expression of desire for Stamkos to come home and lead his boyhood team
to glory.
Now for whatever reason, Steven Stamkos decided that he wanted
to resign with his current team, the Tampa Bay Lightning and, quite frankly,
since I have been a proponent of the Leafs NOT pursuing Stamkos for almost a
year (here), I am a little relieved that the Leafs did not immediately place
themselves back into Cap Hell by taking on a humongous contract.
After we are all done with bathing in the salty tears
of Oilers and Habs fans, let us all take a quiet moment to relax and
contemplate what John Tavares or Connor McDavid will look like in the brand
spanking new Maple Leaf sweaters in a couple of years.
Hey, we can always dream, right?
