Both teams have won 50 regular season games, a feat achieved by only seven clubs in the NHL. Both teams won their first round match against teams ranked in the top thirteen of the general classification. Both teams have a core of formidable players aged between 25 and 29.
In Edmonton, although the disappointment is strong following the elimination of the club in six games at the hands of the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday, we say to next year, and hope still lies in the hearts of the supporters.
In Toronto, they want to break up the core of stars and dismiss the administration, from president Brendan Shanahan to the equipment manager!
One can nevertheless understand the emotionality of the media and the supporters of the Maple Leafs. Toronto hasn’t won the Stanley Cup since 1967 and has been knocked out in the first round six years in a row, after ten playoff eliminations in eleven years.
The organization’s streak of failure appears to have been too long for the first-round victory over last season’s runners-up, and two-time Cup winner in 2020 and 2021, the Tampa Bay Lightning, to overshadow those lean years.
The Oilers lived through a long desert between 2007 and 2016: ten years without any playoff participation. But they reached the second round in 2017 and the semi-finals last year. And they have won five Cups since 1984, the last of which was in 1990.
That’s probably why today we won’t demand the departure of general manager Ken Holland or coach Jay Woodcroft or trade Leon Draisaitl because he hasn’t scored in the last four games against Vegas.
The reconstruction of the Oilers, however, began long before that of the Leafs. They got the first of four consecutive first overall picks in 2010, winger Taylor Hall.
The Leafs got their first overall pick in 2016, Auston Matthews, but they drafted Mitch Marner fourth overall the year before.
But Brendan Shanahan has been in office since 2014 and Kyle Dubas since 2018. Ken Holland’s arrival in Alberta is a little fresher, but barely: 2019.
The contract situation of general manager Dubas, however, opens the door to speculation. It is now without a contract, at least no public announcement has been made if ever an agreement had been reached.
Toronto lost in five games against the Panthers, but did Dubas fail? Florida had just eliminated the best club in the regular season, the Boston Bruins.
They lost two of their four games in overtime, the second of the series by one goal and the first by two.
Dubas’ acquisitions to better support its core, Ryan O’Reilly, Calle Jarnkrok, Sam Lafferty and Noel Acciari, have done well in their respective roles.
The hiring of John Tavares on the free agent market in 2018 destabilized the team’s salary structure, raised the stakes for the signing of young guns Marner, Matthews and Nylander, and did not yield the expected results. but it goes back more than five years.
The other opening to speculation also comes from contractual situations, those of Auston Matthews, 25, and William Nylander, 27. And the situation deserves reflection. The two will both be granted full autonomy at the end of the next season.
Is Matthews, especially him, interested in a long-term contract extension? If not, expect a thunderclap in Toronto, with or without Dubas.
Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Penguins would wait to find out what happened to Dubas. The twists and turns should not be lacking in the coming weeks, as is always the case in the spring…
Axel Sandin-Pellikka 5e on Craig Button’s list…
TSN’s Craig Button has released his list of draft prospects. This list is always highly anticipated each year, as the former Calgary Flames general manager isn’t shy about thinking outside the box.
Thus, it puts Swedish 5-foot-10 right-handed offensive defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellikka in fifth place, behind Connor Bedard, Adam Fantilli, Leo Carlsson and Matvei Michkov, but ahead of American center Will Smith.
Another 6-foot-1 right-handed Swedish defender, Tom Willander, climbs to eighth following his performance at the World Under-18 Championship and the Zach Benson, Ryan Leonard and Matthew Wood, favorites on many lists, are excluded from the top ten.
Last year, Button placed Shane Wright in first place, Juraj Slafkovsky second and Finn Joakim Kemell ahead of Logan Cooley, Simon Nemec and Cutter Gauthier in third place.
Kemell, finally drafted at 17e rank by Nashville, had a difficult winter in Liiga, but he did well in the American League in Milwaukee with 13 points in 14 games at 19. Marco Kasper, who was ranked 17ewas drafted eighth overall by Detroit and even played in an NHL game at the end of the season.
Time will tell if Button was a visionary or not.