Maple Leafs don’t have to follow the Raptors’ lead

The Toronto Maple Leafs had many chances past seasons to win the Stanley Cup; but instead they failed to get out of the first round.

Their sister team, the NBA’s Toronto Raptors, won a championship in 2019. However, to win, they traded a fan favorite for DeMar DeRozan. Since then, the team has slipped. While they made it to the postseason last season, there’s a slim chance they will make it this season.

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Here we will discuss why the Maple Leafs shouldn’t follow the Raptors’ model.

The Raptors Championship Season

In 2018, the Raptors made a significant trade with the San Antonio Spurs. They acquired Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green in exchange for DeRozan and Jakob Pöltl. It was a bold and risky move for two reasons. Reason one, Leonard was only one season away from becoming a free agent. Reason two, Leonard only played nine games last season due to injury.

Still, the Raptors went all in. You were lucky. Leonard stayed healthy throughout the 2018-19 season. The Raptors’ medical staff and training staff dealt with load management, and Leonard rested for more than 25 percent (22 games) of the 82-game season.

At the end of the campaign, the Raptors also acquired Marc Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies for Jonas Valančiūnas and others. It worked. Those moves were key to the Raptors championship in 2019.

What happened to the Raptors after this championship season

Since then, the Raptors have experienced a mix of successful and unsuccessful postseason runs, and the trade to acquire Leonard turned out to be a one-season loan.

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Leonard was the turning point in the Raptors’ success this season, being named the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP). His iconic game-winning shot eliminated the Philadelphia 76ers after three random jumps and sent the team to meet an injured Golden State Warriors team in the finals.

The team hasn’t had this much luck since their championship. They reached the Eastern Conference semifinals in 2020 but missed the playoffs in 2021. Then they lost in the first round in 2022. Now, in 2023, the Raptors’ regular season record stands at just 25-30.

Should Maple Leafs fans hope for a single shot at a championship season for a mediocre team going forward?

As desperate as Maple Leafs fans are to win a Stanley Cup, it’s hard to know what they would be willing to give up just to win a cup. Would they trade solid players or prospects (Pierre Engvall, Alex Kerfoot, or even Matthew Knies or Pontus Holmberg) for a permanent lease (Timo Meier, for example)? Even if they knew it meant swapping the future to get Meier?

Will Matthew Knies, now playing at the University of Minnesota, ever be a raptor?
(Image courtesy of University of Minnesota Athletics)

Some fans might risk it all and go all-in hoping their three-bounce shot doesn’t go off the rim. Or that the Maple Leafs would face an injured team in the Stanley Cup finals.

Should Maple Leafs fans hope the organization will build a team that will compete for the trophy every season?

Other fans may prefer a long-term success model rather than sacrificing the future for a chance at short-term fame.

These fans may believe that winning a Stanley Cup depends on a long-term growth strategy that can create a dynasty with incremental tweaks along the way. Of course, it’s not the fans who decide what the organization is likely to do this season. This decision is made by management based on its priorities and values.

Raptors got lucky and paid for it

The Raptors’ road to an NBA championship wasn’t without bumps. But the team got lucky and won everything. The parade was great and the city celebrated.

Toronto Maple Leafs President Brendan Shanahan (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov)

Had that ball bounced and fallen off the rim three times, the Raptors wouldn’t have a championship, and they’d still be stuck with the mediocre and rebuilding team they have now.

I want the Maple Leafs to build the next NHL dynasty

I believe the Maple Leafs should continue to build a strong and competitive team that wins season after season and has a chance to win the biggest prize every year. I wouldn’t trade the future for a single shot at a trophy next season knowing that the team was likely to become mediocre in the next couple of seasons.

Some fans may immediately prioritize winning. I’m not one of them.

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As a Maple Leafs fan, I don’t want to look back on the 11 seasons between 2005-06 and 2015-16 when the team failed to qualify for the postseason 10 times, nor when losing in the 2012-13 quarterfinals was their only postseason success in this time.

A gamble for a Stanley Cup isn’t worth a decade of terrible teams.

The veteran professor (Jim Parsons, Sr.) taught for more than 40 years at the University of Alberta’s School of Education. He is a Canadian boy who has two degrees from the University of Kentucky and a PhD from the University of Texas. He is now retired on Vancouver Island where he lives with his family. His hobbies include playing his hockey cards and just being a sports fan – hockey, the Toronto Raptors and CFL football (thinks Ricky Ray embodies how a professional athlete should act).

If you’re wondering why he doesn’t use his real name, it’s because his son — who is also Jim Parsons — wrote for him The Ice Hockey Writers first and asked Jim Sr. to use a different name so readers would not confuse their work.

Since Jim Sr. had worked in China, he adopted the Mandarin word for teacher (老師). The first character lǎo (老) means “old” and the second character shī (師) means “teacher”. The literal translation of lǎoshī is “old teacher”. That became his pseudonym. Today, except writing for The Ice Hockey Writershe teaches research design at several Canadian universities.

He’s excited to share his insights on the Toronto Maple Leafs and how sports impact life more broadly. His Twitter address is

Source: thehockeywriters.com