At the 2011 NHL Draft, Brian Burke fulfilled his pledge to trade up in the first round, trading the 30th (Rickard Rakell) and 39th (John Gibson) Picks to Anaheim in exchange for the 22nd Pick, which was used to select Tyler Biggs. The move was made more for the sake of making a deal than anything else. Biggs is a big winger with little offensive skills which make you think he might have still been available for the 39th pick. The Leafs also selected Stuart Percy with 25th Pick.In the offseason Burke replaced two of Ron Wilson's assistant coaches, hardly a ringing endorsement of the head coach considering Tim Hunter was a long-time assistant to Wilson. Scott Gordon and Greg Cronin were brought in to help Wilson with defense and specialty teams which were terrible in the previous 3 years.
Burke made two key free agent additions, adding centers Tim Connolly from Buffalo and Philippe Dupuis from Colorado. Connolly was to finally address the hole as centre on the first line. Dupuis was to help the penalty killing. Both signings turned out to be busts as Connolly's indifferent play gets him demoted to the third line while Dupuis finishes the season with the Marlies.
The Leafs also added to their blue line by trading Brett Lebda and prospect Robert Slaney to the Nashville Predators in exchange for Cody Franson and picking up the contract of center Matthew Lombardi. They also picked up John-Michael Liles from Colorado for a second pick which was a huge boost to the powerplay. Veteran goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere was acquired by the Colorado Avalanche and Burke decided to go with his 2 young goalies, James Reimer and Jonas Gustavsson, despite the fact they barely had 100 NHL games combined.
The Leafs got off to a fast start, winning their first three games and seven of their first ten, finishing October in first place in the Northeast Division, second in the Conference. Phil Kessel was the NHL's leading points scorer with 18, and leading goal scorer with 10. Joffrey Lupul was bounced back from his injury problems and provided Kessel with a skilled linemate for the first time since coming to the Leafs. James Reimer was the starting goaltender for the first five games, but was injured in his next start when Montreal's Brian Gionta struck Reimer in the jaw while fighting for the puck. That injury pretty much put a nail in the coffin as far as the 2011-12 season. Reimer never fully recovered. As well, Lupul hurt his shoulder in the last two months of the season which had a significant impact on Kessel's offense.
Early in the season the Leafs power play has dramatically improved, with a 21.6% conversion rate, good for third in the league as of December 17, 2011. However, when shorthanded they had been less efficient with a 73.0% kill rate, the worst in the NHL.
With the Leafs falling out of the playoff race and in the midst of losing 10 of their last 11 games, including a 6 game losing streak, head coach Ron Wilson was fired and replaced by Randy Carlyle on March 2, 2012. The Leafs once again missed the playoffs while the Los Angeles Kings just squeaked in then went on a 16-4 streak through the playoffs to win their first Stanley Cup.
The Kings ended 45 years of frustration. For the Leafs there is no end in sight.
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