Wednesday, October 1, 2008

I knew you'd click on this.

If you're reading this, you probably came from here. In fact, Luke Schenn should be sent back to his junior team, despite his excellent showing in the Maple Leafs' preseason games. This is basically for three reasons:

  1. The Leafs already have a logjam on defence, and keeping Schenn would likely mean losing another defender on waivers. From an asset management perspective, this is a bad idea. It would be better to keep that extra defender until the trade deadline and trade him for draft picks.
  2. The current collective bargaining agreement means that keeping Schenn this year would mean he'd be eligible for free agency one year sooner. The Leafs aren't in a position to contend this year, but they might be a few years down the line, and that's when we'll want Schenn.
  3. The Leafs have a history of bringing up young defencemen before they're ready (e.g., Al Iafrate). They shouldn't make that mistake again, but should instead let Schenn mature further with another year on the Kelowna Rockets before bringing him up to the big time, where he may be overmatched and lose confidence (which being part of a losing team, as the Leafs are likely to be, would make more likely).

I think that covers it. Since I don't really have anything else to say on the subject, this will almost certainly be a one-time post.