In the finale of my 5 part series on the makeup of the 2011 playoff teams, I’ve decided to do a little summary on my findings and then apply that knowledge to how the 2010-2011 edition of the Toronto Maple Leafs were assembled. First, let’s take a look at the overall findings for each category.
Top Prospects – 29.5%
Overall, it seems just about every team had a decent contribution from their own first round draft picks, save the Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins and New York Rangers, none of whom have major representation from their first round draft selections. Pittsburgh, Washington and Los Angeles skewed to the high side, but the remainder of the clubs found balance, with typically only 3-5 core players coming from draft picks. Whether it’s the Sedins and Kesler, or Kane and Toews, or Getzlaf, Perry and Ryan, most of the core of a playoff team comes from the first round of the draft.
Player Development – 24.3%
Almost as important, it seems, as drafting in the first round, is developing players who don’t come from the first round. The Detroit Red Wings and San Jose Sharks are models for player development, with so many great stars drafted in the later rounds. The Nashville Predators and Buffalo Sabres owe a lot of their success to later round picks as well, while a few clubs, like Phoenix, Philadelphia and Washington, don’t seem to have as much luck in the later rounds of the draft. Names that appeared here include Detroit’s big three of Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Niklas Lidstrom, along with Ryan Miller, Tomas Plekanec, Joe Pavelski and Duncan Keith.
Free Agents – 23.4%
There have been many key free agent signings over the years, helping to put teams over the top, but some were not high profile at the time, like the Tampa Bay Lightning giving Martin St. Louis a shot, or the Red Wings getting the most out of Dan Cleary. Others were marquee names at the time of their signing, like Marian Hossa, Zdeno Chara, Brian Rafalski and Ed Jovanovski. While not as impactful as other categories, many teams like to fill their depth roles or provide leadership to a young group through free agent signings.
Trades – 22.8%
In what has been a declining trend thanks to the salary cap era, it seems the trade is a bygone art in the new NHL. Many of these players were acquired prior to the salary cap changes, like Joe Thornton in San Jose and Tim Connolly in Buffalo. Most of the cap era trades have been player dumps for assets like Chris Pronger, Simon Gagne and more recently, Tomas Kaberle. Some player for player deals were still made, like Philadelphia acquiring Kimmo Timonen and Scott Hartnell in the 2007 deal that saw Peter Forsberg become a Nashville Predator. There have been some one-sided rip-offs as well, like Braydon Coburn, Roberto Luongo and Patrick Sharp, but for the most part, teams are less likely to trade for what they need than they are to sign or draft for it.
Summary
Overall it was nice to see that the categories are fairly balanced, proving there’s no one most effective method of getting into the round of 16, but it did also shed some light on the importance of first round draft picks. If you don’t have many, then it seems you had better be good at developing the players you do have. Had I more time I would have liked to have researched the assets that went the other way in the above trades to see where they came from, giving us a more complete picture of a team’s overall strategy. This, I feel, would likely shine a bigger spotlight on the other three categories, as in order to trade you have to have something worth trading, and that will typically come from one of the other three categories.
So how are the current Toronto Maple Leafs built? Let’s take a look:
The Toronto Maple Leafs
Trades – 45%
Recent deals to acquire players like Kessel, Phaneuf, Grabovski, Giguere, Aulie and Lupul make up the bulk of this club. This group comprises two of their leading scorers and their first pair defensive unit. Penalty killing forwards Mike Brown and Fredrik Sjostrom were also acquired in trades.
Free Agents – 28%
The Leafs have been active on the free agent market thus far, acquiring current players like MacArthur, Komisarek, Armstrong, Bozak, Lebda and Gustavsson to go with earlier free agent signings like Tim Brent, Darryl Boyce and Joey Crabb. Many of these signings are depth players, grinders and penalty killers that can provide leadership and toughness, but outside of MacArthur, none have added much of a scoring touch to the roster.
Player Development – 16%
The Leafs haven’t had much success in developing their players, until recently. We’ve seen the waves of rookies come up through the system only to wash out, like Steen, Stajan, Colaiacovo, McCauley, Johnson, Berehowsky and many more. Toronto hasn’t been a good place for prospects to come up, but lately, we’ve seen the sudden rise of later round stars in Nikolai Kulemin, Carl Gunnarsson and goaltender James Reimer. This bodes well for their future picks.
Top Prospects – 11%
The biggest weak point in recent years for the Leafs has been in the first round. Whether they traded it away beforehand, like the pick that became Lars Eller or the pick that became Tyler Seguin, or whether they drafted a player and then moved them, like Tuukka Rask or Jiri Tlusty, the Leafs haven’t had much success with first round picks. That all changed in 2008 with the drafting of defenseman Luke Schenn at 5th overall. Schenn has been a revelation on the Leaf blueline and figures to be a big part of their future, as does their 2009 first round pick Nazem Kadri.
Facing the Facts
The numbers don’t lie, and what they say is that every playoff team in the NHL owes at least 40% of their roster to player development and / or top prospects. This is an area where the Leafs have faltered for many years and they are paying for it now, with just 27% of their club’s makeup coming from their own picks. This is more evidence at how bare the cupboards were before the current regime came aboard, as even other players who came up through the system like Boyce, Crabb and Brent were free agent signings and not their own picks.
However, this season saw significant contributions from the Leafs own core of players, like Schenn, Kulemin, Reimer, Gunnarsson and call ups from the Marlies like Aulie and Boyce. We are now starting to see some of the fruits of the team’s labours over the past three seasons, as a more mature Nazem Kadri showed up late in the season and we’re hearing good things about prospects such as Matt Frattin, Joe Colborne and Greg McKegg. With 3 picks in the top 40 in this year’s entry draft, GM Brian Burke will look to add even more pieces to what is proving to be a solid organization for player development, and as my analysis shows, that is the key to building championship teams.
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Born and raised in Northern Ontario but currently living in Toronto, Tyler wouldn't have it any other way. Home to his two favourite sports teams, Tyler revels in the day to day sports experience that is Toronto. 
Awesome series man. Nice perspective on how everyone came to be, and how the Leafs stack up.