worst NHL franchise of all time?

[TheRobotDevil]

I've considered, but I would still like to like my own posts.

The devil will like them for you


And I agree with bolts the caps have had some bad runs and made so e very poor choices

 

[Naughtymax]

Well, since SI rated the Leafs as the worst sports franchise in the world, by extension they're the worst in hockey. No team does less with more resources. Losers since '67 and headed to another joke of a season with an empty roster and no hope.

Can't fault the expansion franchises for losing when the Leafs have never won WHEN THERE WERE MORE THAN 5 OTHER TEAMS IN THE LEAGUE.

 

[Sgt Brutus]

Hahaha Leafs fans

 

[Naughtymax]

Hahaha Leafs fans

..

 

[Sgt Brutus]

Fuck Ovechkin, he aint won shit

 

[LALakersboy24.7]

Fuck Ovechkin, he aint won shit

True!

 

[davnlaguna]

They were a lot more than "relevant". As I mentioned earlier in this same thread, if winning 13 cups in 50 years before expansion was so easy why did Boston, Chicago, Detroit and New York only manage to win 16 combined in the same period?

As far as reading comprehension goes, you should have probably figured out that saying that they're not "the worst franchise of all-time" is not even close to the same thing as saying that I'm "happy with their lack of playoff experience, or early exits from them if they do manage to get in".

If you want to make the argument that they're the worst since expansion that argument probably holds water. But arguing that they're the worst of all-time is a rather difficult case to make.

It could be because of how teams got players back then. You could only sign players in your area. So the only way US teams could sign Canadian players was if the Habs and Leafs didn't want them. Since most hockey players are from canada it made it harder to build a team. Many kids were signed very young.
The Leafs were a good team and maybe some day they will be again, but right now they are managed worse than the Clippers with no end in sight.

 

[TheRobotDevil]

Gotta go with the Montreal wanderers

 

[DragonfromTO]

It could be because of how teams got players back then. You could only sign players in your area. So the only way US teams could sign Canadian players was if the Habs and Leafs didn't want them. Since most hockey players are from canada it made it harder to build a team. Many kids were signed very young.
The Leafs were a good team and maybe some day they will be again, but right now they are managed worse than the Clippers with no end in sight.

Your explanation of the rules seems rather different from what I remember them being... for instance I seem to recall there being something about a 50 mile radius of the arena, rather than "all of Canada". I'll have to read up a little to refresh since it's been a while but I believe (for instance) that there's a reasonably long list of players from Quebec who were signed by other teams without being rejected first by the Canadiens. The Canadiens didn't get every player from Quebec, nor did they have a league mandated right to all of Quebec. What actually did happen is that because it was a wide open race for everybody outside of that 50 mile radius the Canadiens basically got to almost everyone in Quebec (and many other parts of Canada for that matter) first by being heavily involved in minor hockey, both by scouting and sponsoring amateur leagues.

 

[Naughtymax]

Your explanation of the rules seems rather different from what I remember them being... for instance I seem to recall there being something about a 50 mile radius of the arena, rather than "all of Canada". I'll have to read up a little to refresh since it's been a while but I believe (for instance) that there's a reasonably long list of players from Quebec who were signed by other teams without being rejected first by the Canadiens. The Canadiens didn't get every player from Quebec, nor did they have a league mandated right to all of Quebec. What actually did happen is that because it was a wide open race for everybody outside of that 50 mile radius the Canadiens basically got to almost everyone in Quebec (and many other parts of Canada for that matter) first by being heavily involved in minor hockey, both by scouting and sponsoring amateur leagues.

Debunking the Canadiens''' French Territorial Rights Myth - Eyes On The Prize

This does a pretty good job of explaining it. Open season throughout the league to sign players, with the Canadiens having been given a 'two first French-Canadian players' exemption up to the end of the war years that produced almost nothing since most talent was signed young. The 50-mile rule is mentioned in several unofficial publications, and may have been a 'gentlemen's agreement', but I can't find anything that looks official to confirm it.

As it says, otherwise Jean Ratelle, Marcel Pronovost, and Gil Perrault would never have played elsewhere.