Toronto Maple Leafs Look To The Future

With the expected absence of Mats Sundin and the general housecleaning by general manager Cliff Fletcher, the Toronto Maple Leafs face the new season with a pretty bare cupboard. What does it look like for the Leafs in the short term? Grim according to most observers. Toronto may be the only team where you need to remind the fans that the team isn’t as good as fans think. History shows that very few risky player moves work out. If they did, you would be clutching your Raycroft rookie card right now. Here's who has left in the offseason:

Goalie Scott Clemmensen to New Jersey Devils
Defenseman Jay Harrison off to Europe
Center/Right Wing John Pohl also to Europe
Goalie Andrew Raycroft to Colorado Avalanche
Center Mats Sundin MIA somewhere in Sweden
Right/Left Wing Darcy Tucker to Colorado Avalanche
Center Kyle Wellwood to Vancouver Canucks
Defenseman Bryan McCabe to the Florida Panthers

And the big names added to the Leafs roster? Um, well... I can also see the headline back in Colorado "Avalanche Gives Leafs The Finger."

Defenseman Jeff Finger from Colorado Avalanche
Center Mikhail Grabovski from Montreal
Left/Right Wing Niklas Hagman from Dallas Stars
Right/Left Wing Jamal Mayers from St. Louis Blues
Right Wing Greg Scott signed as a free agent
Center Tim Stapleton from Europe
Goalie Curtis Joseph (again?) from Calgary Flames
Defenseman Mike Van Ryn from Florida Panthers
Coach Ron Wilson

Under-promise and over-deliver. The Maple Leafs will be woeful this season and for the forseeable future. But the faithful will continue to stream through the gates to see a mediocre team game after game. Meanwhile more and more Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins caps and jerseys will continue to appear on the streets of Toronto.

Of course when (When? Don't you mean if?) the Leafs finally win a Cup and end their 40-year and counting drought, all the Leaf fans will come out of the wood work to say I told ya so. Just don't count on it happening this season. I'd probably hide out in Sweden too if I saw what was coming this year in Leaf Land.