It’s been a fun year, hasn’t it? The Maple Leafs earned a playoff spot after bottoming out the year prior. The future is bright on the backs of Auston Matthews and company. It’s clear the Leafs have an upwards trajectory that their Atlantic division can only hope to contain.

The problem is: they’re doing a crappy job of it.

Perhaps a good way to celebrate the holiday season would be looking back on the times that the Leafs’ dueling opponents decided to shoot themselves in the foot.

It’s unfortunate that the Subban/Weber atrocity was in 2016, because that would have been the clear winner of this “fails of the year” post.

Thankfully, the Canadians didn’t stop screwing up in 2017. There were a number of things to choose from here, but the one I chose was throwing away Andrei Markov to the KHL after a really good season. Scoring 36 points in 62 games, and playing a positive possession game at 53.8% even-strength shot attempts ratio.

Even better than the fact that Markov was still good when the Canadians let him go? They replaced him with what most people clearly saw as an overpay waiting to happen in Karl Alzner. Signing him to a boat anchor contract (he’s also a boat anchor player so I guess it fits) for $4.625 AAV over the next 5 years, they also signed themselves to a life of mediocrity. He’s been a pretty bad player for a few years now, floundering in the top pairing role for Washington. This year looks like he’s improved to being mediocre in his reduced role at the Canadians.

The Alex Burrows for Jonathan Dahlén swap was hilarious in so many ways. First, and most obviously, Dahlén looks like a gem. He is destroying the Allsvenkan with 22 points in 19 games, which is very good production for his age.

Secondly, Alex Burrows hasn’t been good for at least a couple years.

Third, and, to me, most hilariously, he was going to be a UFA this July! The Senators added him for a playoff run I guess, but to sacrifice your future for a mediocre 4th line trade deadline acquisition seems like a ridiculous asset management strategy.

Many knew that Tampa was in a tough situation this offseason, with “the triplets” all coming to the ends of their contracts in the same offseason. They got away with robbery on Kucherov, but the Palat and Johnson decisions were certainly questionable.

Johnson, who is now a right winger after being supplanted by Brayden Point, has been a decent contributor for them this year, but betting 7 years on him at $5M per was less than ideal. Sure he’s a decent player, but it’s become clear that the “triplets” magic was primarily Kucherov, and dropping down the lineup, $5M isn’t a great price tag for what he brings.

Even though it’s a bit of a stretch compared to the hilarious whiffs in this post, this one goes on the “whoops” list for me.

In the 2017 draft, the Red Wings selected a Michael Rasmussen, a mediocre scoring, 6’4″ all the time, centerman. This was not smart.

Unfortunately we can’t draw many comparisons to Gabe Vilardi, who was showing incredible stuff in the 2016-17 season, but suffered a back injury that has kept him out of the lineup this year.

If you’d like you can compare Rasmussen to Nick Suzuki, who has 19 more points in 5 more games. Despite not seeing anything from him this year, though, I’m confident Vilardi has a bright future. Rasmussen, well, maybe he’ll follow in the footsteps of the great Lawson Crouse.

So much for continuing a rebuild, eh?

Instead of taking steps forward, the Buffalo Sabres seem to be trying to reclaim their 2015 title of “worst team in the league by a fair margin”, though the Arizona Coyotes and Edmonton Oilers are giving them a run for their money (wait, are we sure this isn’t still 2015?)

They’re now looking to “re-tool” by trading literally anyone but Jack Eichel, which seems like a bold and not very bright strategy. Their defense needs a complete overhaul – there’s not one piece there to be excited about. On forward they’re a bit better, but really not exciting either. What a mess of a rebuild.

It sounded like the Bruins were so, so close to giving up on yet another young talent, when David Pastrnak’s contract negotiations took a slight turn south and trade rumours began to fly. They didn’t materialize, unfortunately, so we’ll go with the next dumbest thing: Firing Claude Julien.

Julien has been one of the best coaches in the league for a long time now. He’s won the Cup in Boston, and as usual had the team playing good, effective hockey despite a serious decline in talent over the years. Not a single puck would go in for the Bruins, and somehow that was Julien’s fault, so they let him go.

Montreal (in one of the few smart things they did) snapped him up almost immediately, though they probably just wanted him because he speaks French.

I think I saved the best for last. The “computer boy” summer of 2016 saw nerds like myself rejoicing in plenty of shrewd, good future bets made by then-Panthers GM Tom Rowe and his army of analytics folks. But it all changed when they just barely missed the playoffs and Dale Tallon decided that 8 months was definitely time to say “enough is enough”.

He completely has been blowing up what the team built in the summer of 2016. Letting Smith and Marchessault go to Vegas for basically nothing was the worst of the offenses, no doubt. Letting Jagr and Jokinen walk were key losses the team never really replaced. The shenanigans live on as he currently continues to try to trade Jason Demers, and bring back Alex Gudbranson. It’s a hilarious mess, and the Leafs get to continually reap the benefits as they parachute down the standings.