Good morning fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey club and also lovers of heartbreak and pain.

While the NHLPA and NHL play chicken with the 2020-21 season, we have lots of spare time on our hands. This week I've been thinking about the Maple Leafs roster and I wanted to find out which players were brought in by which GM, and then we'll know who to blame for the inevitable failure the 2021 playoffs will be. Four General Managers and one President were overseeing this roster being built, and they are:

Brian Burke

Morgan Rielly - 2012 (Draft)

Burke’s final fingerprint on this franchise is our should have been captain, who is potentially in his final season with the Maple Leafs depending on the size of this next contract. At the time Burke said he would have picked Rielly at number one, and looking at the players drafted ahead of him I think Burke was right (take that Charron, I was right too).

Dave Nonis

William Nylander - 2014 (draft)
Pierre Engvall - 2014 (Draft)

Dave Nonis, Burke’s #2 and the GM who played nicer with the MLSE board, has two players still on the team (kind of). We got William Nylander when everyone assumed Nonis would pick Nick Ritchie, and most people have been trying to trade him away ever since. Pierre Engvall is a maybe for the roster, but with his new contract he’s way overpaid for the Marlies.

Brendan Shanahan

Zach Hyman - 2015 (Trade)
Mitch Marner - 2015 (Draft)
Travis Dermott - 2015 (Draft)

Shanahan oversaw 2015 in between Dave Nonis and Lou Lamoriello’s terms as GM. Kyle Dubas and Mark Hunter split duties at the draft, but which one brought in Zach Hyman? It was Kyle, no one wanted Hunter to do anything.

Lou Lamoriello

Frederik Andersen - 2016 (Trade)
Auston Matthews - 2016 (Draft)
Justin Holl - 2016 (UFA)*
Timothy Liljegren - 2017 (Draft)

For the last GM in charge, he doesn’t have a lot of players on the roster, but he brought in two of the key players for the team, and two defenders, one of which is probably more taxi squad than regular. You decide which.

Kyle Dubas

*Justin Holl - 2015 (Signed to the Marlies)
Rasmus Sandin - 2018 (Draft)
John Tavares - 2018 (UFA)
Jake Muzzin - 2019 (Trade)
Nick Robertson - 2019 (Draft)
Jason Spezza - 2019 (UFA)
Alex Kerfoot - 2019 (Trade)
Ilya Mikheyev - 2019 (UFA)
Jack Campbell- 2020 (Trade)
Zach Bogosian - 2020 (UFA)
Mikko Lehtonen - 2020 (UFA)
Wayne Simmonds - 2020 (UFA)
Jimmy Vesey - 2020 (UFA)
Joe Thornton - 2020 (UFA)
Travis Boyd - 2020 (UFA)
TJ Brodie - 2020 (UFA)
Zach Bogosian - 2020 (UFA)

For a guy with only two years at the GM’s desk, Kyle Dubas has made a lot of changes to make this his team. Using all avenues at his disposal (aside from offer sheets, which are as real as unicorns, sasquatches, and AVCO Cups), Dubas has brought in forwards, defenders, and goalies to shape the background of this team around the cornerstones brought in by Burke, Nonis, Shanahan and Lamoriello.

There’s not tossing former GM’s under the bus for Dubas. If this team fails, it’s all on him.

Now, some news:

8 big Maple Leafs takeaways from Kyle Dubas' wide-ranging Q&A session

Dubas had a virtual Q&A with Ron MacLean on the weekend.

Allan Walsh (who blocked me for literally copy/pasting his own words in a reply) has sa thread about the NHLPA and the NHL and court room drama.

A nice stat from yesterday:

NHL still targeting early January start for 2020-21 season - TSN.ca

And I’m still looking for a PS5 for Christmas, let’s see who gets what they want first.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day everyone!

Also, if you know where I can get a PS5 for retail price, @ me. Right now.

From The Branches