The Bright Side

A couple moves to start draft day

Its been a long time coming. We took a shot at the beloved cup, and unfortunately fell short. And the time for rebuild is among us. There were only a couple pieces of value left among the ranks, and as the battle got tougher, they wanted out. I'm a GM of honor and respect, and they gave us all they had to help us get to where we did, and then our last season happened, and that was disheartening. The original plan was to bring guys like doughty, varlamov in was to help stay somewhat relevent, and last season showed us that would be difficult with all the teams emerging in the east. Losing Hathaway to Seattle, Kassian,Frolik,Martin, and Lyon to FA, I decided it was time for a big change in Toronto, and made some big moves, moves that will help our franchise for years to come.

The first cog to fall was Varlamov. He was a solid addition to our team last season, we needed a starting goalie and he answered that calling. He's all class, and seeing what the team was going to look like in front of him, decided he may want to go somewhere where he has a real shot at the cup. Fastforward to yesterday. A couple weeks ago i was approached by the Isles gm asking about Varly. If varly was going to leave the idea was to get a first, no matter what. The option for retention came up, and finally, i decided, i can either just keep making little moves and slowly creep up, or go for the gusto. The final deal was Varlamov at 50% retention for 3 years for 6th OVR, florida's 3rd, and Alex Galchenyuk. Finally, after all these years being GM for the leafs, i get to pick in the top 10, i was going to say the first round, but we did select Jacob Perreault late in the first last year.

Then this morning happened. Another offer came in, Doughty at 50% for 3 years for 14 OVR and the rights to andersen. We traded our goalie, and now we need one, a little negotiating power goes a long way. Also, being excited about the first 1st round acquisition, this seemed too good to pass up. So i did it. Here we are now, where i have to decide who to take, SO EXCITING!

For now the moves are done, with Free agency and the draft still to come, lots of work today, but this is just the beginning. If you guys want to make any deals, please feel free to reach out! The future is going to be a bright one for this squad, and I cant wait to see the results. I would like to thank Varly and doughty for their services here in toronto, but they definitely went to a couple class acts in New York and Edmonton.

Once the dust settles after the draft, I will be assessing the Leafs prospects and making a ranking

Thanks for reading, and happy drafting boys!

This has been Brunch with Gaudy, stay classy TDOT, also, what ever happeend to SteveB Real and Toronto2hype?