NHL.com: Inside look at the Toronto Maple Leafs

When Mike Babcock took over as coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs prior to last season, he said there would be pain in the coming years.

The Maple Leafs finished 29-42-11, the worst record in the NHL, but a funny thing happened on the way to getting the No. 1 pick in 2016 NHL Draft: Leafs Nation appeared to endorse the careful rebuilding of an organization that has not won the Stanley Cup since 1967.

Toronto fans accepted the last-place finish because it gave the Maple Leafs the best odds of winning the NHL Draft Lottery, which they did, and allowed them to choose center Auston Matthews.

“We got a lot better (adding Matthews),” Babcock told the Maple Leafs website. “Lou [Lamoriello] is a better general manager, I am a better coach and the team is way better … [Matthews is] going to be a dominant center for the [Maple] Leafs with and without the puck. He’s going to be a championship-type center.”

Matthews, 19 on Sept. 17, is the Maple Leafs’ first legitimate No. 1 center since Mats Sundin left in 2008, and they have a dependable No. 1 goalie, Frederik Andersen, who was acquired in a trade with the Anaheim Ducks for the 30th pick in the 2016 draft and a second-round pick in 2017.

“Whenever you have a goaltender of this magnitude, of this success, it breeds confidence from the defense through the forwards and from the forwards through the defense,” Lamoriello said. “We feel that it’s a necessity with the growth and where we’re at.”

Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan and Lamoriello have vowed to patiently construct a team that, once it gets good, will be good for a long time, and there is every reason to believe the additions of Matthews and Andersen helped set the stage for a Stanley Cup Playoff push. Toronto has made the playoffs once in the past 11 …

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