Has it really been four-and-a-half years since Brendan Shanahan was hired in Toronto?



Yes, yes it has. Hard to believe.



Equally hard to believe is just how much has broken right for the franchise in that time.



Shanahan has done a good job, don’t get me wrong. He has made difficult decisions and hired bright people and used ownership’s vast resources in new, innovative ways. But the Maple Leafs have also won a series of small lotteries — not just the obvious big one that landed Auston Matthews first overall in 2016.



Few organizations flip around this dramatically this quickly, going from a laughingstock to contender in the course of a few years. In doing so, they’ve rocketed past teams like Buffalo in short order.



It’s been a bit odd trying to chronicle it all with an unbiased, critical eye. The Leafs went from making a host of ill-advised decisions over and over between 2008 and 2014 to making mostly smart, sane...