It was five years ago this past spring (April 11, 2014) that the Toronto Maple Leafs hired Brendan Shanahan as team president.
Shanahan then spent a year watching and learning.
On April 12th 2015, Shanahan fired Dave Nonis and the Toronto Maple Leafs rebuild began.
At the time, everyone pronounced that it would be “years of pain” and that patience would be needed. The consensus was that to properly rebuild an NHL team into a contender, you would need five years.
Toronto Maple Leafs Overachieved
In the first year, the Leafs drafted Mitch Marner, then were so bad they were able to draft Auston Matthews first overall at the beginning of the second year.