The TML 2010s All Decade Team

[Arn]

Since were getting on towards the end of another decade, The Athletic have been doing a load of retrospectives. One of them is their Leafs team of the decade.

It?s been a tough enough decade to be a fan with a few false dawns but it?s kind of fun to look back at some names that have played here. Here?s the athletics team if anyone wants to have a go at making one of their own or tweaking this one

JVR ? Matthews ? Kessel
MacArthur ? Tavares ? Marner
Lupul ? Kadri ? Nylander
Hyman ? Bozak ? Kulemin

Extra: Grabovski

Gardiner ? Rielly
Muzzin ? Phaneuf
Kaberle ? Hainsey

Extras: Gunnarsson, Franson

Andersen
Reimer

Full story: https://theathletic.com/1291640/2019/11/27/behold-the-maple-leafs-all-decade-team-2010-19-in-all-its-confused-glory/


For the record, the ?nightmare? team

McLaren ? Smithson ? Orr
J. Blake ? Jokinen ? Clarkson
Sill ? Wallin ? Crabb
Rosehill ? Dupuis ? Hanson

Exelby ? Finger
Lebda ? Komisarek
Aulie ? Holzer

Toskala
Gustavsson

 

[Highlander]

OMG...Hanson....remember when we had hopes for him.  How far we have come. 

 

[Kin]

It's sad that you'd have to choose either but I'd take young Luke Schenn over Hainsey.

 

[Coco-puffs]

It's sad that you'd have to choose either but I'd take young Luke Schenn over Hainsey.

I think the Athletic had not included the 09-10 season (well, IIRC it depended on which beat writer/which team was being done- I know Blake Murphy didn't consider the Raptors 09-10 season).  IN which case you are comparing only Schenn's last two seasons here to Hainsey's two seasons here.  If you include the third season (09-10) then it makes more of a case.

 

[Bullfrog]

I'm getting old. My first thought is "why the hell isn't Sundin on that team?" Then I realized just how long it's been since he's played for the team.

Then I got sad.

 

[Kin]

I think the Athletic had not included the 09-10 season (well, IIRC it depended on which beat writer/which team was being done- I know Blake Murphy didn't consider the Raptors 09-10 season).  IN which case you are comparing only Schenn's last two seasons here to Hainsey's two seasons here.  If you include the third season (09-10) then it makes more of a case.

I guess it depends if you're just going for a "best of" or if you're going for more of a representation of who mattered more. Because if it's a strict "best" thing then I wouldn't take either guy over Franson or Gunnarsson but if it's who's more, I don't know, iconic of the team then I'd still go with Schenn.

 

[Bullfrog]

On the second team, I didn't mind Wallin that much. I'd swap out Hanson for Ondrus though. I consider Belak too, but I feel bad because of the way he died.

 

[Bender]

On the second team, I didn't mind Wallin that much. I'd swap out Hanson for Ondrus though. I consider Belak too, but I feel bad because of the way he died.

Belak wasn't on the team in the 2010s.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

On the second team, I didn't mind Wallin that much. I'd swap out Hanson for Ondrus though. I consider Belak too, but I feel bad because of the way he died.

Belak wasn't on the team in the 2010s.

Ditto for Ondrus.

 

[Kin]

On the second team, I didn't mind Wallin that much. I'd swap out Hanson for Ondrus though. I consider Belak too, but I feel bad because of the way he died.

Belak wasn't on the team in the 2010s.

Ditto for Ondrus.

It really is a sad statement of my advancing age that I made that same mistake in my head a bunch of times. Like it's been 10 years since Ian White was on the team.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Jason Blake being on the nightmare team is pretty stupid.

edit: Oh, I guess only his 3rd/last/worst season with the team would be included in this decade. Still, there's plenty of worse players.

 

[Kin]

Jason Blake being on the nightmare team is pretty stupid.

I didn't read the article so I don't really know what they're going for but Orr and McLaren? Yes, they were relics of an earlier time who were put out there too much by a coach that wasn't adapting to a changing game? It seems weird to put them alongside someone like Clarkson when they were perfectly alright at what they were there to do.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

At forward, my all-decade team would probably swap Lupul out for Grabovski just so we could roll 4 more "iconic" type lines (well, 3 plus Kadri joining the Tavares line). The MGK line deserves their time in the spotlight here.

Hyman-Matthews-Nylander
Kadri-Tavares-Marner
JVR-Bozak-Kessel
MacArthur-Grabovski-Kulemin

Gardiner, Rielly, and Phaneuf are all top-3 in GP and points so they're instantly in for defence. I have a hard time including Muzzin here as only last season's 30 games would count. If we look strictly at points Franson, Kaberle, and Gunnarsson round out the top-6, and honestly I'd probably be alright with that. So we'd see:

Gardiner-Rielly
Kaberle-Phaneuf
Gunnarsson-Franson

Goaltending is pretty easy: Andersen and Reimer are both top-2 in GP and wins.

 

[Bullfrog]

On the second team, I didn't mind Wallin that much. I'd swap out Hanson for Ondrus though. I consider Belak too, but I feel bad because of the way he died.

Belak wasn't on the team in the 2010s.

Ditto for Ondrus.

In fairness to me, the last decade's been a bit of a blur.  8)