Before the 2016-17 season began for the Toronto Maple Leafs, nobody was expecting a fast forward button to be pushed at any point in the rebuild.
For Brendan Shanahan, no such button has been pushed.
As the boss of the organization, it’s expected that he’d have some tempered expectations that might (and probably should) differ from that of the team’s fans.
They can also relate to realistic expectations.
Sometimes tempered expectations can be attributed to being a pessimist, but in this case, I don’t believe so.
I think that believing that the Leafs are not quite Stanley Cup contenders is an alright thought pattern and I may have had a different perspective on that before reading Shanny’s thoughts on the subject.