Music: {allcanada} New Toronto management sees improvement

Saturday, September 6, 2014

{allcanada} New Toronto management sees improvement

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In their first time assembled together in a public setting, the Toronto Maple Leafs' remade front office shared their high expectations for a team that has now gone more than a decade without a Stanley Cup Playoff series win.

Addressing the Toronto faithful at Leafs Nation Fan Fest on Friday, Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan, general manager Dave Nonis, assistant general manager Kyle Dubas and assistant to the general manager Brandon Pridham agreed that their team was built to win right now.

"I think we've got a lot of good pieces. We've got a lot of guys under contract that we've got locked in. We're not an old team, we're a young team. We've got some good players in our system that we want to develop. I really think we have the potential to do something here," Shanahan said. "The easy thing would be to dismantle it all and buy ourselves several years. I think we've got too many young players that I hope take the next step. That's what I want to see."

On March 10, Toronto had the fourth-best record in the Eastern Conference and was third in the Atlantic Division. But the Maple Leafs went 2-12-0 to finish the season and missed the postseason, inspiring the team to hire Shanahan as president. He then brought new blood into Toronto's front office by hiring Dubas and Pridham.

Rather than overhaul the Maple Leafs roster, Nonis and his staff built up Toronto's depth, signing forwards like Mike Santorelli, Daniel Winnik, Petri Kontiola, Leo Komarov and David Booth. It is management's hope that this improved forward depth can help the Maple Leafs take the next step and rebound from their late-season swoon in 2013-14.

"We felt last year our depth wasn't where it needed to be. We put a lot of pressure on our top six forwards to perform every night. They did. I think we can't take issue with the points that our top six guys put on the board, but they needed some help," Nonis said. "We think we have nine players that are going to battle it out hard during camp for those bottom six spots. That's not going to end when we get to opening night. Those players will have competition all the way through the season."

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