Maple Leafs have followed the Blackhawks’ franchise-building blueprint. Here’s why it hasn’t paid off so far

When the Maple Leafs drafted Auston Matthews first overall in 2016, a year after taking Mitch Marner fourth overall, the comparisons to the Chicago Blackhawks began almost immediately.

The Blackhawks were an Original Six team which hadn’t won a Stanley Cup since 1961 until rescued by Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews.

Kane was a scoring wizard, speedster and gifted playmaker, taken first overall in 2007. Toews was a centre with defensive acumen and leadership abilities, taken third overall in 2006.

By the time the Matthews-Marner era began in Toronto, Kane and Toews had earned three Stanley Cup rings (2010, 2012, 2015). The same quick turnaround, the same end to a too-long Stanley Cup drought, was the dream in Toronto.

It hasn’t happened.

With the sun setting on the Kane-Toews era in Chicago — both are likely to be traded at the deadline as they near the end of their careers — the question is why has similar success eluded the Maple Leafs, who haven’t been able to win a playoff round, much less a championship.

“Was it lightning in a bottle?” says Darren Pang, the former Blackhawks goalie and TV colour commentator. “A change of a coach, segueing from Denis Savard to Joel Quenneville, from an owner dying (Bill Wirtz) with son Rocky putting the team finally on TV.

“What I remember is that the players went from insignificance in the city to billboards, to local TV and an energy that I personally had not seen there, even going back to my playing days. The crowd to me would be like the (extra) man. The place was jammed. Whereas it hadn’t been before. There were just so many factors that went into the rise of the Blackhawks in 2010.”

The Maple Leafs have always dominated Toronto’s sports coverage, even if they took a back seat in 2019 to the Raptors championship run. But Leaf crowds — whose passion is unquestioned — have only on rare occasions lifted themselves to the frenzied level witnessed routinely in Chicago in the Kane-Toews heyday. Leaf fans probably don’t want to get too high, accustomed as they are to the frequent lows.

Both teams added high-priced, effective and Cup-hungry free agents — Chicago with Marián Hossa while the Leafs signed John Tavares.

But maybe that’s where the comparisons truly end.

“Toronto is more top-six loaded than what Chicago was,” said Pang. “Chicago had players that could change the course of a game on the bottom six, more so than what Toronto has had lately. Now, are they developing that with (David) Kämpf and Calle Järnkrok? I would say they are.

“But Chicago had Adam Burish, Troy Brouwer, Bryan Bickell, Dave Bolland. Some pretty big boys.”

It’s fair to say the Leafs bottom six has been a work in progress, with coach Sheldon Keefe continuing to audition Marlies for jobs there. Even the ones who have stuck, like Pontus Holmberg and Joey Anderson are on the small side — both six-feet — compared to players in the bottom six who have had big playoff games against the Leafs in the past, like Patrick Maroon and Jeff Carter.

And when Marner and Matthews began their run, the Leafs didn’t have the kind of defencemen who Chicago already had in place for Kane and Toews. They had Hall of Fame bound Duncan Keith, his steady Canadian Olympic team partner Brent Seabrook, the intimidating Dustin Byfuglien and an emerging Niklas Hjalmarsson and sleek puck mover Brian Campbell.

“They had a pretty decent group on the back end,” Pang said. “A really solid group. That’s something Toronto has been trying to get ahead of, building a bigger and bulkier group. That’s not easy to do. It’s not like they grow on trees.”

The Kane-Toews Hawks missed the playoffs in their first two years, but won two rounds in 2009 before winning the Cup in 2010, ending a 49-year drought and passing the longest active drought onto the Maple Leafs, now at 55 years and counting.

“Winning the first round is everything,” Pang said. “After that, momentum and confidence kick in, and the city gets excited, and there are fewer and fewer naysayers.

“When you have a cynical vibe it sucks the life out of you. When you have an energetic vibe and you win and it might just be the first round. The first round could catapult them to greater heights and maybe get to the final, who knows.”

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