On where the club made its greatest strides:
I just think that the buy-in from the players that occurred, right from the first time they got together and got on the ice. Mike is a coach that challenges you every single day and Lou is a GM that also has very high standards. You never really know if everyone is going to buy in and everyone can keep up, but the players – especially the ones that we had hoped would really dig in and go to work – did.
On the excitement of the draft pick:
I think there’s excitement around every draft, especially if you’re a team that has two picks in the first round, two in the second, two in the third, two in the fourth. Obviously, just with the moves we’ve made to acquire those picks, the draft is something we are really focusing on. To have a high pick certainly is exciting to us, our fans, and most of all our scouts, who put in a lot of time and a lot of miles throughout the hockey season so that they have an opportunity to give us some players.
On whether the team is ahead of where he thought it would be:
I think that’s fair to say. Without getting ahead of ourselves, you hope for certain things. You hope for players to take the next step – current NHL players. And then you hope your prospects develop. Sheldon Keefe and his staff, and Kyle Dubas, have done such a great job with the Marlies. Some of the players we have playing throughout Europe and the CHL and college hockey – it’s impossible for them all to hit, but we certainly have exactly what you’d want, which is prospects. The key for them is just having the ability to, when they get to the next step, elevate their game. I think we know we’re just at the beginning of this process, but it’d be fair to say we feel we are a little bit ahead of where we thought we might be.
On the most important thing accomplished this season:
The way that we are perceived by our city, by the rest of the NHL, and even amongst ourselves. I think that the players changed the way that the Maple Leafs are perceived. I think they worked hard. The culture, the attitude – in my opinion – is a complete 180 from where we were at this time last year. I think that they’ve shown Toronto is a great place to play. It can be a safe place to play. The fans, they get it, and they understand it. They not only understand it, they support it. They went out this year – and look, we ended up 30th – but with the way that [the players] worked and the way that they prepared, our fans were very supportive of our team.
On less drama and fewer off-ice distractions this year:
In my mind, in some ways, Mike brought discipline, structure, accountability, culture change on the ice. Lou was responsible in many ways for fixing that off the ice as well. The players wanted it, as well. It’s one thing to have a coach and a GM to show you the way and guide you, but the players are the ones that get the credit for doing the work. Nobody wanted a repeat of last year. So the guys that are here right now, the guys that finished the season with us – whether they’re players who played with us for a few years or guys who came in on a one-year deal – we thank them today for the work they put in this year. This is really about building a foundation that they want to be proud of. I think that the players, in many senses, bought into that idea of building the foundation the right way.
On what Nazem Kadri proved to him this season:
I think the biggest thing that Nazem proved is that he could play for Mike Babcock. I think he’s got a big fan in Mike Babcock. He’s an extremely competitive person. He shows a willingness to play at both ends of the ice. It’s important for him now to keep developing. He is now on a team where he is not the young guy anymore. He’s expected to be a presence and a veteran. I think that he likes that and I think he wants to embrace that.
On providing a sense of ownership to players like Gardiner and Rielly in terms of a leadership role:
I give the credit to Mike Babcock and the coaching staff for that. I think that he’s a great teacher. He’s a great coach. He has a saying that he has in his dressing room, “let’s catch them doing it right.” What’s very big on him is giving confidence to his players. You’ve got to show them what they’re doing wrong – you have to show them where they have to make corrections – but then you also have to show them when they’re doing it right. I think Mike did a great job with some of our players this year, giving them that confidence. Hockey is a game of mistakes. They’re always going to make mistakes. It’s how can you limit them and how can you learn from them.
On a timeline for getting a captain in place:
No timeline.
On what he’s looking for in the next captain:
A good leader. Leadership.
On the progression from Rielly this season:
I think Morgan really had a year of growth for us. Mike gave him tougher minutes from the very beginning of the season. You just saw his confidence grow from the very beginning throughout the season. Unlimited potential for him. We’re very pleased with him. He logged a lot of very difficult minutes this year and he accepted that challenge well.
On assessing where the goaltending is at right now for the franchise:
I think that, obviously, it was up and down throughout the year. You look at a guy like Jonathan; I think he finished strongly. That’s one of the areas that we’ve said to all of our players, “now you have to have an NHL summer, and you’ve got to come back ready to play.” We’re going to have some people pushing and challenging.
On the value of a long run for the Marlies:
Anytime you can have success in the playoffs in any league, you want that for your players that are in your system. Winning is something that you learn how to do, and you get into a habit of doing. It’s something you have to learn by doing. There are some guys that get in the habit of feeling like they’re entitled to play until June, and that they’re expecting to play into May and June every year. Then, there are other guys that expect their season to end in April. We want more and more guys to have that sort of expectation that the season extends. Those lessons are usually learned, if they’re not in the NHL yet, in the playoffs.
On expectations for free agency:
Too early to say.
On how the “patience” is coming along:
We’re all very confident in where we’re going, and that the ship has been turned in the right direction. Now it’s just a matter of at what point do we arrive. That changes day to day, week to week, year to year. There will be things that will pop up that will make you feel like it’s going to slow you down a bit. There’s things that will pop up that will make you feel it will speed up a bit. At the end of the day, it’s most important that we’re all confident in where we’re going and that we’ll eventually get there.
