I had a hard time swallowing that article, because it was fucking terrible.
But for something comparable, let’s have a look back at what happened in Alberta last season, shall we?
Let's not Damian. First of all, you're not the Flames. You don't have young forwards like Gaurdreau and Monohan, you don't have a Mark Giordano. Who in your prospect pool is going to be your Sam Bennett? Your team is gutless and heartless. Buffalo and the Oilers might be a comparison, but positioning yourself as a team that wins through effort and enthusiasm is hilarious, given the total lack of character on that Leaf roster.
Let's see how he describes the Sabres:
Right now, he has the rights to draft Eichel, a productive scoring winger in Tyler Ennis, a good centre prospect in Sam Reinhart, the question mark that is Evander Kane, erratic young defenceman Zach Bogosian, blueline prospects Rasmus Ristolainen and Nikita (Alarm Clock) Zadorov, and Latvian forward Zemgus Girgensons.
"Good Centre", "Question Mark", "erratic"... well geeze, they pretty much suck. No mention of Matt Moulson, Marcus Foglino,Mikael Grigorenko or Jake McCabe or Hudson Fasching?
The leaves, on the other hand, possess
a reliable but flawed sniper in Phil Kessel, a first line winger in James van Riemsdyk, veteran defencemen Dion Phaneuf and Roman Polak, experienced goalies Jonathan Bernier and James Reimer, and youngsters like Morgan Rielly, Nazem Kadri, Jake Gardiner and William Nylander.
See now Damien, aren't the leaves seriously considering trading Kessel and Phaneuf? Are Bernier and Reimer experienced in a good way, or are they now conditioned to losing and not being good enough? Does Phaneuf not define "erratic"? Has Nylander ever played a game, would he not simply be a "good winger prospect", similar to "good centre" Sam Reinhart. And Roman Polak? Really? GTFO.
Stacked up this way, it doesn’t really look like Buffalo has this massive leg up on the leaves. You might even say the leaves are in a better position. Depends on your perspective.
LOL.
Now I know Hockey's Future is not the be-all-end all, but last season they ranked Buffalo as #1 in terms of prospects. Toronto was #19, even behind Vancouver at #18. Bleacher Report has Toronto at 19, Buffalo at 6. Finally,
NHL.com and their composite Rankings seem to believe Toronto has 1 consensus top-60 prospect (Gauthier had 1 vote) in Nylander. Buffalo had Reinhart and Zadorov both ranked consistently ahead of Nylander, and also numerous votes for guys like JT Compter, Fasching, McCabe, and goalie Linus Uilmark.
So yeah, Cox is sucking some Toronto cock in the aftermath of the Babcock signing. Not a huge deal to just say it's a good move for a terrible franchise, but to come out and say they have a better future than the Sabres is fucking laughable. Even Babcock admits Toronto is going to suck. Get on board, Tuna, Buffalo is going to have two of the best centre prospects in the NHL in Eichel and Reinhart (either of whom would be far and way the best Leaf prosepct) on their roster as soon as next fall, while Toronto is likely going to blow their roster to smithereens (much like their front office), and start yet another rebuild.