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Another scout said the 2015 talent pool is so deep with A-list prospects that having a pick in the 20s is equivalent to a top-10 pick in another year.

This is, in other words, a good year to be bad.

“It’s kind of bittersweet really,” Morrison said. “You’re certainly not happy to be in that spot, but at the same time for us it’s a chance to help us down the road. It is exciting in that sense, because you’re watching players who are producing every game. They’re difference-makers. Those are the types of guys you do get excited about.”

In a season that is all but lost, the upcoming trade deadline and draft are about the only things fans can look forward to as the team starts to plan for three to five years down the road.

By then, who knows what the Leafs will look like? Will Phil Kessel and Dion Phaneuf still be here? Will the team have climbed from under David Clarkson’s contract? Who will join Morgan Rielly at the centre of the next core group of players?

If you want to get a look at what the future holds, go to a Toronto Marlies game. With Brendan Leipsic (fourth in AHL rookie scoring with Nashville’s affiliate in Milwaukee) joining a young AHL team that includes 2014 first-round pick William Nylander, Connor Brown (third in rookie scoring), 2011 first-round pick Stuart Percy and goaltender Antoine Bibeau, we should be witnessing the next generation of Leafs.

“The main goal is the NHL, but it’s a process,” said 20-year-old Leipsic, who has 35 points in 47 games in the AHL this season. “Obviously if there’s a group of us that can try and grow and maybe one day play together in the NHL, that’s the ultimate goal.”