Why it’s the perfect time to target Maple Leafs players in fantasy.

No one ever wants to be on a sinking ship and with what has occurred even before Randy Carlyle was relieved of his duties as coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, some are ready to jump. 

Jeff O'Neill and Jamie McLennan in their latest Tim HortonsThat's Hockey video, "Is it time for the Maple Leafs to blow it up?", express exactly that very idea. 

Their host Gino Reda asks if the Leafs should be patient and build through the draft or accelerate the process. While McLennan would go at it in a methodical and measured approach, O'Neill is ready to rip the Band-Aid off quickly.

Says O'Neill, "I don't believe that this core players that go to the rink every day, they're not going to be any better in ten games from now and they're not going to be better next year in training camp so you can't give them the benefit of the doubt and say 'We're going to play it out. We're going to reset.' Maybe add to this group of players and next year they're going to come to camp and they're all going to get it" and "You have to look at the core players like Phil Kessel and Dion Phaneuf, those are the players that might fetch something back".

McLennan cautions about the speed of the dismantle, "Bigger picture is trades like that, if you believe you're going to pull the plug and move forward, you've got to start that process and start the conversations underneath and maybe it's something at the draft or in the offseason you move."

There are three guys that they consider untouchable, goaltender Johnathan Bernier, Morgan Reilly and James van Riemsdyk.

From The Globe and Mail's James Mirtle, "Mirtle: With playoff chances slipping, Leafs season is about what's next" he suggests "[Peter Horachek] doesn't have the horses", "[The] Leafs haven't been scoring for a while" and "Three wins and 27 goals scored in 13 games. So it's not the system change". 

He continues about the losses and the types of losses under Carlyle's style, "Yes, maybe the Leafs can be a slightly higher scoring team under Carlyle. Maybe that's a fact. But another fact is they only had the eighth most even strength goals in his 188 games as coach, and their goal differential was still one of the worst leaguewide despite solid goaltending. Those goals came at a cost, and we know for a certainty – after nearly three years – what that was and what that topped out as. It wasn't very good."