TORONTO -- As Toronto Maple Leafs players met the media on locker clean-out day, an all-too-familiar pre-playoff exercise in this city, none of them knew if they'd be back in September, cognizant of the changes that lie ahead.
The two highest-paid players insisted Monday they hope to remain, even though all signs point to at least one of them -- if not both -- getting dealt as the rebuild continues in earnest.
"I signed here for seven years and I want to remain a Toronto Maple Leaf," said captain Dion Phaneuf. "It's an honor to play in this city, for this organization. And I expect to be back."
Much-maligned star winger Phil Kessel echoed that.
"Hopefully. I signed for eight years last season. I love Toronto," said Kessel. "The fans have been great to me. I love the guys and I love playing here. So, hopefully I'm back."
Kessel, 27, led the Leafs with 61 points, although his 25 goals were below his standards, having twice scored 37 goals for the Leafs. It was easily his worst season since he came over from the Boston Bruins in 2009.
"I'm not happy about it, right? If I knew, I would have fixed it," said Kessel. "It was just one of those years where I couldn't get anything in. I had some chances. I don't know how many breakaways I missed this year. I just couldn't get it done."
Phaneuf, 30, singled himself out Monday before being asked by media about his own play.
"Personally, I didn't play well enough," said the captain, who had 29 points (3-26) in 70 games. "My numbers, I think, reflect that. The offensive side of the game, I didn't produce where I expect to produce. I feel that that affected our team success. And I take responsibility for not playing to the level that I expect."
Kessel and Phaneuf took most of the blame for their team's woes -- that comes with the territory when you're the highest-paid players -- but there is plenty of blame to go around on a team that completely self-destructed.
Goalie Jonathan Bernier had a first-hand view of what it takes to be a championship team while with the Los Angeles Kings. Asked to compare the work ethic with the Kings in that championship year of 2012 to what he's seen during two years with the Maple Leafs, Bernier was careful in his answer, but you can read between the lines.
"As a group, we know we probably could have worked harder," said Bernier. "It's all about consistency within our games. Some nights we were willing actually to execute the game plan and willing to play a 200-foot game. Some nights we maybe wanted to take the easy route. But in this league, it's such a competitive league, you got to play the right way every night."
Like the Calgary Flames, just to cite an example that some of the Leafs players have brought up.
"I think a lot of people around the league, at least smart people I hope, they look at that team ... they may not have all the talent in the world but they come to the rink and they work," said backup goalie James Reimer.
"They just come and play the game the right way. For all teams, that's the model right there. If you can do that, you're going to be a heck of a team. If you can do that when you have a lot of skill, no one's going to stop you."
That challenge in Toronto will be up to a vastly different-looking roster next fall. Today's goodbyes marked a real goodbye for some of the Leafs players parting ways this week.
