The Toronto Maple Leafs Should Adhere to This One Easy Guideline for All Winning Teams
All successful teams in professional sports adhere to the same guideline. The Maple Leafs in Toronto ought to come next.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are among those who are most aware of how difficult it is to run a hockey team.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are among the poorest run teams in all of professional sports, at least historically.
However, their apparent plan to sell Mitch Marner raises the possibility of the franchise plunging to an unprecedented new low.
They might, however, prevent this by abiding by the most fundamental sports regulation.
The Toronto Maple Leafs Should Adhere to This One Easy Guideline for All Winning Teams
Don’t Trade Future Hall of Fame Players During Their Primes is a rather straightforward guideline.
All successful teams adhere to this fundamental standard.
Jack Eichel was moved by the Buffalo Sabres, a terrible team, to the Golden Knights, who advanced directly to the Stanley Cup Finals. Sam Reinhart was also traded by them. What happened to the squad he joined, you ask?
Matt Tkachuk was moved from the Calgary Flames, who are also a bad team, to the Florida Panthers, who won two straight Stanley Cup Finals.
Which clubs, if any, that acquired Dougie Hamilton, Taylor Hall, Brent Burns, or PK Subban went on to succeed? No, they didn’t.
How about the Pittsburgh Pirates just keeping winning with that Gerrit Cole package outside of the NHL? Or how did the Blue Jays’ deal of Roy Halladay turn out?
Trading away Hall of Fame players in the NHL or any other sport almost invariably results in a subpar team that fades into obscurity. Exchanges IN RETURN TO Hall of Fame players? virtually a certain route to success.
It doesn’t take a physic or a genius to figure out which of the two doors the Leafs should choose to enter.
In 576 games, Mitch Marner has scored 639 points. He will be a GUARANTEED Hall of Fame player with over 1000 points if he plays for another four or five years, which he most likely will.
Based on his current scoring pace, Marner has a decent chance of reaching 1500 points. He would then rank in the top 20 all-time.
It’s possible that he hasn’t yet reached his peak season. The player the Leafs would be trading with is one that you have never been able to win a trade with in the past. Because of his no-movement clause, he would be at his lowest potential worth and they would be dealing from an extremely vulnerable position.
As a result, even though it would be foolish to deal him in the best of situations, the Leafs are now in a difficult situation. That would be foolish to trade him.
No club improves by moving a guy this excellent, regardless of what has transpired so far. The Toronto Maple Leafs must abide by the one and only regulation that counts while managing a professional sports team:
