Anyone who becomes general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs should be forced to take the following pledge before their first day on the job. With their right hand raised, they must repeat: I promise not to trade away young players and draft picks for players whose best years are behind them, I promise not to trade away young players and draft picks for players whose best years are behind them. I do solemnly swear I will not trade away young players and draft picks for players whose best years are behind them. Dave Nonis, of course, took no such pledge when he took the job almost three years ago. But heres hoping he made at least a private vow to himself not to repeat the mistakes of those who came before him. Weve all seen the pattern. A Maple Leaf general manager starts out on a blueprint to build the team through patience and smarts, developing from within and keeping a core of young players that can mature and come of age together. But it never turns out that way because somewhere along the way he hits the fast-forward button and the plan goes out the window. The panic sets in when the draft picks that were supposed to fuel the Leafs improvement dont pan-out, forcing him to mortgage the future just to keep the teams head above water. Which is why news that the Leafs have interest in the potential availability of Carolina centre Eric Staal is so worrisome because it would take the Leafs down a similar path as that where their previous plans have gone astray. Only theres no reason it should. Early in their third season under Dave Nonis, the Leafs remain a work in progress just in terms of reaching the post-season. Theyve got a fair amount of talent but dont play the game in a way thats conducive to consistently winning. They arent talent poor. Theyre young, frustrating at times, and still a long way from reaching their collective potential. But this is a team, unlike some past Leaf teams, which has at least chance to mature into something decent. In Gardiner, Rielly, Kadri, van Riemsdyk and Kessel the Leafs have four players all age 27 or younger who either are, or have the potential to become front line NHLers. They have a goaltender in Jonathan Bernier who looks a lot like a rising star and a rookie in Stuart Percy who is fitting in well so far during just his second season as a pro. And last seasons top pick, William Nylander, appears to possess the skills that could make him able to play as a rookie 19-year-old next season. So theres lots of young trees in the forest, so to speak. To sell off a combination of those assets and or draft picks for a player in Eric Staal who turns 30 this month is asking for a repeat of history. Staal has already played a ton of hockey in his career – 771 games, suffered some significant injuries and his best season in terms of goals and points is now eight years ago. Would he immediately become the Leafs best player? Probably. But for how long? Theres absolutely no way to know that but there are so many great hockey players whose abilities decline significantly past their early 30s. Which means that if the Leafs were to acquire Staal, hes likely to become a fading star on an expensive ticket by the time the core of their team matures. Acquiring Staal would make sense if the Leafs were in the midst of a Stanley Cup window with maybe two years remaining in it. But theyre nowhere near being able to compete for the Cup. They need a lot of things before that happens. But nothing more than patience. Steph Curry Shoes For Sale . Dallas also Monday recalled defenceman Aaron Rome from his conditioning assignment with the Texas Stars of the American Hockey League and assigned goaltender Jack Campbell to the AHL squad. Clearance Steph Curry Shoes . - The Seattle Seahawks have signed nine players to 2014 future contracts, including quarterback B. https://www.stephencurryshoescheap.com/ . Johns, N.L., to Thunder Bay, Ont., after a deal was announced to build a new $106-million "event centre" in the Lake Superior community. Steph Curry Shoes Free Shipping . - A retired Indiana school principal who was NASCAR star Jeff Gordons drivers education teacher was killed with his wife in a Tennessee crash while returning from watching Gordon race. Steph Curry Shoes Deals .ca presents a week long look at some of the teams and stories that will shape the up coming campaign.DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Its been 21 years since Joe Gibbs Racing celebrated its only Daytona 500 victory. Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth have the team in good position to end the drought. The JGR drivers swept the Daytona 500 qualifying races Thursday night. For Kenseth, it was redemption after a pair of wrecks during Speedweeks. Hamlins victory kept him undefeated on 2014. Hamlin also won last Saturdays exhibition Sprint Unlimited, and he goes into Sundays season-opening Daytona 500 trying to become the first driver in history to sweep Speedweeks. "Once that snowball starts to roll, its hard to stop it, and right now were just on a heck of a run," said Hamlin, who closed last year with a win in the season finale. After going so many years without winning a second Daytona 500, team owner Joe Gibbs wasnt looking ahead. His only win was with Dale Jarrett in 1993. "Weve come with great cars over the years. It shows you what a tough race this is, the 500," he said. "This race is extremely, extremely hard to win. That probably says it the best. That says it the best, over 21 years, thats a bunch." JGR had strong cars last season and seemed to be the team to beat during the race, but came up empty when Kenseths engine failed while leading. Minutes later, teammate Kyle Buschs engine also failed. Toyota is still looking for its first win in the "Great American Race." "The last Daytona was so far away, weve moved well beyond that," said Toyota Racing Development President David Wilson. "Were certainly not sweating the issues we had last year." The qualifying races make for an emotional day as drivers race their way into the Daytona 500, while others are sent home from the biggest event of the NASCAR season. Those left broken-hearted this year were Michael McDowell, Joe Nemechek, Ryan Truex, Eric McClure and Morgan Shepherd, who at 72 was trying to become the oldest driver in the field. Dave Blaney withdrew from the qualifying race after wrecking his only car in Wednesdays practice. But it was euphoria for the small teams of Swan Racing, which got both Cole Whitt and Parker Kligerman in the race a day after both drivers wrecked in practice, and Hillman Racing, which will be in the Daytona 500 with Landon Cassill, who was hit by a car Saturday while riding his bike in Daytona. "Ive been stressed out about this siince July," Cassill said.dddddddddddd "I think Ive played this race over in my head, what I think it could do, for months now. For a small team, this race kind of makes our whole season, just the prize money alone to start on Sunday gets us through the next six or seven weeks. Its just huge for us." For Swan Racing, getting rookies Whitt and Kligerman into the field erased the nightmare of Wednesday. Whitt wrecked moments into practice, and the team was forced to rebuild his car after Kligermans was totalled when he went airborne. It was the first time Kligerman was ever upside down. Because Swan has only one backup, Kligerman got it, and the team went to work rebuilding Whitts car. Whitt raced his way in, but Kligerman faded in the first race and had to nervously watch the second race unfold to see if he earned a spot in the Daytona 500. "I feel like in a lot of ways, you have the weight of an organization on your shoulders to get these two cars in the race," Kligerman said. "Its a growing organization, an organization that wants to be around for a long time to come." But the second race ended in chaos, making everyone unsure of anything as defending Daytona 500 winner Jimmie Johnson ran out of gas on the final lap to trigger a crash that caused Clint Bowyers car to flip. "I knew he was saving gas coming to the green. Its too bad to tear cars up like that," Bowyer said. "That was one of the wildest flips Ive ever had. I think we would have been just fine if I hadnt hit the grass right here." Johnson was apologetic. "I feel terrible. To tear up that many race cars ... to see (Bowyer) flip ... certainly want to apologize to everyone," he said. "I tried to get up out of the way. So much energy in the pack that I knew I was going to get run over if I ran out because guys warned me about it -- and it did." The first race was uneventful as Kenseth led two times for 31 of the 60 laps. Harvick pulled out on the final lap to make his bid for the victory. Then Kasey Kahne pulled out of line to make it three-wide. After the race, Harvick was informed while sitting in the Fox Sports 1 studio as an analyst for the second race that his Chevrolet, sponsored by Budweiser, had failed post-race inspection for the first Budweiser Duel. "Yeah, well, well, thats no good," Harvick said. ' ' '