Wait For Rick Nash You Say?
July 4th, 2009 by SteveI bet anyone that said the Leafs should hold off and wait for Rick Nash feels mighty dumb right about now. Why’s that you say? Well you see, the Columbus Blue Jackets didn’t even let him begin his final year prior to free agency before signing him to an 8 year contract extension.
In hindsight the odds of Nash getting to unrestricted free agency were FAR FAR lower than the odds of the Sedin twins making it to UFA status, and yet media member after media member trotted out the idea of the Leafs holding off on this year’s round of free agency in the hopes of signing Nash next season. Welcome to the real world Leafs fans. Teams don’t let players like Nash walk to free agency. Hell they don’t let players like the Sedins walk to free agency either, as the fans that were in favour of their signing found out earlier this week.
Oh well… now we can all feel stupid about wishing upon a blue and white star together can’t we?
Here’s hoping Nazim Kadri turns into something special.
Posted in Announcements
13 Responses to “Wait For Rick Nash You Say?”
By christ
on Jul 4, 2009
Couldn’t have signed the Sedins anyway, looks like we’ll have to actually do this the proper way
By James K
on Jul 4, 2009
Makes me think that the rebuild will go at the speed of the development of the forwards in our system + whoever we might get for Kaberle…
By Dan
on Jul 4, 2009
You got to grow your own talent, draft well, and be very lucky in trades. Superstars just don’t move any more… It’s funny, a few years ago they said players who played their whole career with one team were few and far between and that we should enjoy the last few who did. Who knew all it would take is a salary cap to keep star players from floating around the league. Much more difficult to build a winner….
By mf37
on Jul 4, 2009
JFJ tried the waiting for pending UFAs back in 2006 and all of the big-guns re-upped.
I’m not surprised Nash re-signed in Columbus. Howson strikes me as a really solid GM and there’s no way he’s letting a star like Nash walk (from both a business and hockey perspective).
How long until Leaf fans and the media start a waiting-for-Kovalchuk movement?
By Tom
on Jul 4, 2009
I would have done the same if I were Nash, the financial security is obviously very important to him. As a fan I was hoping he was more like J Bo in that he played his final year with the impending free agency and then came back to a hockey market in Canada close to where he was brought up.
You’re right Steve that most teams don’t let guys get to that point, but sometimes a player wants to play close to home, in the microscope that is Canadian hockey, and at that point it doesn’t matter if the GM won’t let him go.
I think people like Nash and Karia who play on middle of the pack teams in middle of the pack American hockey markets choose to stay because they don’t have the desire to play under that microscope. I can’t blame them for that, and that being said, maybe it shows they don’t have the mental toughness to play in a city like Toronto.
Here’s hoping Kovalchuk has a the competitive fire and sense of grandeur about himself that would be needed for someone to consider Toronto as a UFA destination. I think that the reason myself and others perpetually anoint the next UFA target years in advance is that this never ending rebuild could/would be greatly hurried if we could get elite level goaltending/ elite level scoring / elite puck moving defensmen without having to draft and develop that talent ourselves. Sure, drafting and developing is the prudent way to go, but I’m impatient at this point and just want something to get excited about.
Leaf fans should take note of what Boston did a few years ago getting Savard and Chara in the same summer. Maybe it won’t be the one big top scoring Canadian born player the Leafs wind up signing one summer, but 2-3 solid UFA moves that help advance this team. Too bad this summer the Leafs took one very small step forward.
I do like the fact that the Leafs remain bad enough to get another top pick next year, yet have improved the defense without costing our long term cap flexibility. I don’t like the fact that Burke couldn’t leverage our position in the draft for anything other than Kadri, couldn’t leverage Kubina for anything more than Exelby and signed Komi for between .5 and 1.0 million more than he is worth. I don’t think serious mistakes were made, but nothing grand was pulled off.
The Nash resigning and the Leafs offseason moves are trying their best to kill my enthusiasm for this season. If Burke doesn’t move Kaberle for scoring or in some package for B. Schenn, it will signify another lost season for me.
John Wooden said the great words “don’t mistake effort for achievement” but I would rather the Leafs operate like the Flyers and make a ton of bold moves every year than sit on their hands and do nothing. In the end neither team has won recently, but Flyers fans have the possibility that next year may be different because their team invariably is different year to year. Leaf fans know their team and its results will remain the same.
By Steve
on Jul 4, 2009
Yes the funny thing is that Leafs fans always seem to think the next best thing is right around the corner. That’s part of our problem.
We tend to assume other GMs are all morons who don’t actually do their jobs, and will be happy to let their best players walk onto our club.
The Habs were unimpressed with Komisarek a year ago, and now he’s a Leaf. Beyond that what we’ve picked up is a defender known for big hits and/or cheap shots, and a tough guy forward.
I’m not despondent that we won’t get a chance at Rick Nash, because frankly we never had a hope in hell of getting that chance in the first place.
If the Leafs could actually DEVELOP their own talent for a few years, and see what the hell happens when all is said and done, they might actually turn into a pretty decent team for once.
I think we all need to stop the grass is greener outlook on player development. Obviously there are other talented players in the league, but focusing on where our property is going and what they’re doing to improve the development system within the Leafs makes far more sense to me.
By Marco
on Jul 4, 2009
Ilya Kovalchuk anyone?
By doggit
on Jul 4, 2009
I think leafs fans should remember that two of the four Stanley cup winners post-lockout did so without a true “generational talent”. One could even argue that Detroit’s top guns would be merely average players in any other system. We need to stick to the rebuild, free agency is being used properly - to augment what we already have.
Having said that, here’s hoping someone gets drunk and trades us an Ovechkin.
By eyebleaf
on Jul 4, 2009
Kadri, FTW.
By DeathByLeafs
on Jul 4, 2009
@ doggit - I guess you could argue that Anaheim didn’t have the superstar like the other winners (E-Staal, Crosby/Malkin), but Niedermayer/Pronger/Old Selanne/Giguere would be enough for me to consider the Ducks as having a generational talent. And Getzlaf is a premier centre: he’s like Brad Richards at 110%, or everything that is missing from Joe Thornton. He’s a top centre in the West and in 1 or 2 years could be the best in the conference.
But I don’t get the view that Detroit is lacking a talent. Lidstrom will go down in history as one of the best defensive talents ever, maybe only behind Bobby Orr as the greatest of all time. Many players/coaches/GMs have said that Datsyuk - not one of Ovechkin/Malkin/Crosby - is the single best player in the league.
Yes, the 3 guys (O/M/C) are the kinds of generational talents that most teams dream of, but at the very least the Leafs need to have a franchise player to build around. That’s what Nash, Kovalchuk, Getzlaf, Stastny, Kopitar, Gaborik, Iginla, Toews/Kane, Tavares, Lecavalier, (ugh) Spezza (puke), Luongo, Mike Richards (and maybe Parise) are to their teams. Even second-tier stars like Vanek, Jeff Carter, Parise, Chara, and others are huge drivers to a team’s core potential.
The Leafs don’t have anyone like that shaping up. And if they don’t get some top draft prospects, we’ll continue to flounder as a third-rate franchise.
By Tom
on Jul 4, 2009
I guess if we stay the course and rebuild the farm, we at least have the ammo needed to go out an perhaps get a “generational talent” through a trade. Burke did trade to get Pronger for Smid Lupul and picks.
I don’t consider Spezza, Stastny or Kopitar talents like the others you mention. Perhaps the idea for a team like the Leafs is to stockpile, then trade for a young up and coming player (think Kaberle for Carter last year) and then have that player hit top gear for our team.
By bkblades on Jul 4, 2009
I think there’s a misconception on how Boston was built into a contender simply by adding Marc Savard and Zdeno Chara. Yes, they are elite talents and their additions put them over the top (yet, still eliminated in the second round). But it’s Boston’s superior depth that helped them to where they are, rather than signing free agents. Kessel, Lucic, Krejci, and Bergeron were all drafted and developed by the Bruins. And with the exception of Kessel, all of them were drafted in the second round. I understand Savard and Chara helped Boston immensely, but they wouldn’t have done much without the proper support (ie. Savard’s stint in Atlanta, Chara’s impact in his first year with Boston).
More importantly, however, they bought time for their prospects and young players to develop at a slower pace. Where on Boston do you see a truly generational talent? It’s a collection of young, excellent, potentially elite talent that will help Boston compete in the future. Furthermore, by parlaying their young talent into trades for other young talent (Wideman, Rask), they’re virtually set-up for the next five years.
Rebuilding the farm system, drafting and developing prudently are all conducive to these so-called generational talents. No one superstar makes a team into a contender, and I’m not entirely convinced a team needs an Alexander Ovechkin/Sidney Crosby to compete for a Stanley Cup. Unless a team has the necessary young talent and depth throughout the system to greatly contribute on their own, a superstar on an island is exactly what plagued the Kovalchuks & Nashes of the hockey world.
By bkblades on Jul 4, 2009
Just to clarify, when I stated a team doesn’t necessarily need a Sidney Crosby, I don’t mean a team like Toronto doesn’t need him. That’s absurd. But his addition alone or a Rick Nash, most relevantly, is not going to make this team a perennial contender. Would they help? Sure. I guess instead of being a bottom three team, Toronto becomes a bottom eight team. Even Wayne Gretzky had Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey and Grant Fuhr amongst many others.