Doug Gilmour believes there is a bright future ahead for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Gilmour, who served as captain of the Maple Leafs from 1994-97, was part of a rebuild in the Blue and White and thinks the team's new brain trust is on a path towards success.

Gilmour, currently the general manager of the Ontario Hockey League’s Kingston Frontenacs, says president Brendan Shanahan's decision to add experienced individuals to the team's management is already paying dividends in the team's drafting.

"We read it in the news every day, and from when Brendan [Shanahan] brought in [director of player personnel] Mark Hunter to [general manager] Lou Lamoriello, those are great people," Gilmour told TSN.ca. "Mark, I know from playing with him and his junior résumé. He works, and he's very knowledgeable on skill. Obviously, they are going the right way. You'd obviously like to make the playoffs, and I think the way they're going, they'll have a better chance next year."

Gilmour: Staying focused key for young Leafs Toronto Maple Leafs great, Doug Gilmour, joined Game Day with Matt Cauz and Derek Taylor to discuss his career and the struggles of being a smaller player, also what the young Leafs need to key in on to continue to develop in Toronto

The Leafs alumnus then quickly addressed the elephant in the room when it comes to how the team's playoff chances could spike, or drop, depending on the events leading up to and on July 1.

"It will be close [as to whether or not the team makes the playoffs in 2017]," Gilmour continued, "But there are those pieces in the summer time. You don't know what you can add yet, but if you look at it as an outsider and you're a free agent in a year or two, you might say, ‘Listen, I want a challenge.’

"We know who we're talking about here, a couple of No. 91s. I know that's next year for the one, but that's going to be a tough decision … Every player wants to be successful, so, [for them] it's, 'Do I come here and be average for a year or two and then go for it?' And they might."

Gilmour, of course, was referring to Tampa Bay Lightning star Steven Stamkos, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, and New York Islanders centre John Tavares, whose contract is slated to expire after the 2017-18 season. Both hail from the Toronto area and have been heavily linked in the media to their rebuilding hometown team.

Gilmour notched 131 goals and 321 assists in 393 games for the Maple Leafs.

When Gilmour was traded to the Maple Leafs during the 1991-92 season, the team was in the midst of their second straight losing season and third in the past four years. In the off-season, then general manager Cliff Fletcher hired Pat Burns, who had reached the playoffs in each of his four seasons behind the bench of the Montreal Canadiens.

Gilmour acknowledged that the Maple Leafs acquisition of current head coach Mike Babcock last summer could be viewed as similar to the team's hiring of Burns in the summer of 1992.

"It has to be [viewed similarly] because here's a guy that obviously, you know made that decision to come here, and it's hard knocks off the start here,” Gilmour said. “I think our transition [with Burns] would be a little bit faster, but you want to be right around a playoff spot every year."

The Leafs went 44-29-11 in Burns' first season, falling one win short of the Stanley Cup Final. In Babcock's debut year the team sits at the bottom of the standings. Gilmour notes one of the most important things Burns brought to the club when he arrived was a true sense of team spirit.

"Everybody slowly just came together,” he said. “We weren't great off the hop, but we believed in each other and in Pat, the work and effort that he demanded, that we followed. I think the biggest thing was we all liked each other, and we all played for each other and nobody was, I would say, selfish. Everybody accepted their role and we had success through that."

Shanahan, Lamoriello and Babcock have all mentioned the need to change the culture in the Maple Leafs organization, which has made the playoffs just once in the past 10 seasons. Despite having worn the same sweater, Gilmour says he has no problem with that sentiment from the latest group to try to end the team's 49-year Stanley Cup drought.

"If you're not winning, the culture has to change," Gilmour said. "I've been out of the game for 13 years and back in '93 is a long time ago. So for them to say the things they have, that's nothing against us because we were successful. We didn't win the Cup, but we had a good run for a couple of years and that's what people want to see.

"Give the people that opportunity to almost get there, and one day it's going to happen. We just don't know when."

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WEIGHING IN ON DROUIN

When Jonathan Drouin walked away from the Tampa Bay Lightning organization earlier this year, he joined a small group of NHL players to leave their team mid-season. Gilmour is a member of that same club, having walked out on the Calgary Flames during the 1991-92 season. However, Gilmour was quick to dispel any notions of similarities between the two situations.

"I was pretty much an eight-year, nine-year player when [he walked out on the Flames]," Gilmour explained. "But I knew I was being traded, I just fast forwarded it. I went to arbitration that year. There was a lot of animosity toward me going to arbitration and it was a new regime and they had their own ideas and, obviously, I was not going to be a part of it. So that's when I kind of made my decision. I knew I was going to be traded, so that's a total different situation."

Gilmour famously overheard a conversation while in his hotel room as then-Flames general manager Doug Risebrough discussed his plans to trade the forward. He walked out on the team just prior to New Years and was traded days later to the Maple Leafs.

He says being sent down to the American Hockey League, as Drouin was, is simply part of the game for a developing prospect.

"When you're a young player coming in this game, you know what, you're going to have ups and downs and for that down to be to go down [to the AHL], well, to me, you have to absorb that," Gilmour said. "It's a learning curve. Go down, play hard and get your butt back up."

In 19 games this season for the Lightning, Drouin has two goals and six assists.

He also argues Drouin could still return to the Lightning, while applauding his fellow former NHLer and current Tampa general manager Steve Yzerman for keeping the 2013 third-overall pick through the trade deadline.

"You have to give kudos to Steve Yzerman for standing pat and not just giving him up because a month from now he might be one of the leading scorers in the playoffs, you don't know," Gilmour said. "You just look at that club and they're getting closer and closer to solidifying their spot in the playoffs and then if you're going to need help, he's right there. I think you can't hold a grudge. You have to let it go, from both sides, because he is a top player still and he's young. That's the development ups and downs that you're going to go through."

As to how Drouin will look back on the situation, Gilmour, who still has regrets about his divorce from the Flames, believes the 20-year-old forward will feel similarly down the road.

"When you're a younger player like that, you have an agent that you're going to listen to as well and sometimes the decisions that you make are not the right ones at the time," Gilmour explained. "I’m sure at this point in time, with him being back [with the AHL's Syracuse Crunch], I'm sure he regretted it. You don't want to look at it as he's a selfish kid, but there is also advice that he takes and he listens to it, and that's something. I'm sure they'll say, 'It's all gone and let's just get back now.' But I'm sure there's going to be regrets."

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FIGHT AGAINST DIABETES

Gilmour was in Toronto this week to take part in a hockey clinic presented by Sun Life Assurance Company and the MLSE Foundation for children living with Type 1 diabetes.

Sun Life, who will be donating $500 to the MLSE foundation for every assist on goals scored by the Leafs at home games in March, will also be working the MLSE Foundation to provide a one-week hockey camp for children living with Type 1 diabetes this summer, which Gilmour also hopes to attend.

The Kingston, Ont. native says awareness for diabetes is a subject very dear for him, having seen both his parents, grandmother and brother suffer from the disease, with symptoms appearing later in life.

For the children attending the sessions, Gilmour says a focus will be on education of the disease.

"For children under the age of 14, it's roughly three per cent annually that kids get diagnosed with diabetes. It's a large number. It's awareness [we're trying to raise] and if you can look at a guy like Max Domi [of the Arizona Coyotes], he developed it and he has got to be careful about it every day, but at the same time, he is living with it and having a good, healthy life."