from Damien Cox of the Toronto Star,
And, that’s a wrap.
On Episode One. Phase One. Chapter One. Whatever you’d like to call it.
The End of the Beginning?
With the trading of captain Dion Phaneuf this week, Brendan Shanahan and Co. effectively completed the opening stage of the most ambitious, aggressive rebuild in the long history of the Maple Leafs, one that has not yet moved the club closer to becoming a champion again one day but has emphatically ended a frustrating decade of drifting no closer to that goal.
From May 2004 to May 2015 there were two CEOs, four general managers, five different head coaches, 18 starting goalies, one major ownership change, three years when the club didn’t draft in the first round, a period of investment in muscle when the rest of the league was going in the opposite direction and, lest we forget, one seven-game playoff defeat.
Phaneuf’s departure, however, ended any uncertainty the Leafs really have embarked on a definitive new path. They’ve taken it down to the studs, intentionally getting much worse in the hopes of getting much better some day.
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