from Max Bultman of The Athletic,

From 2014-16, Toronto finished back-to-back seasons with fewer than 70 points. The Leafs didn’t have the kind of star power that warranted praise from opponents before and after games. They were, frankly, a little bit like this year’s Red Wings.

Kadri lived those years as some of his first in the league, and so, as his team’s stars took their turns in the spotlight after yet another win, the question was posed to him: Did the Detroit bunch his team had just beaten, 5-3, remind him at all of where the Leafs were just a few years back?

“Yeah, for sure,” he said. “They’ve got potential. It’s just something that’s not easy at the moment. You’ve just gotta kinda keep working towards the future and understand that your ultimate goal is to compete and contend every single year. If that means waiting on it a little bit and having success later on, it’s worth it.”

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