"The most fun you have as a coach is seeing people grasp new ideas and employ them and have success with them," Wilson said. "That's what we're going to be going through the next couple of years. We're going to get even younger. Next year will probably be the same thing, with six or seven rookies. I'm not worrying as much about winning as I am about ensuring these guys get better every day."

It doesn't take spending a great deal of time around the Leafs to realize that Schenn and Grabovski, as well as Mike Van Ryn and Jeff Finger, are viewed through a different lens than players who were here previously. And that's how it should be.

Wilson gets a pass for this season because of the mess he inherited, and while he won't be expected to win the Stanley Cup next season, he and his staff will be judged on how Schenn and Grabovski improve. Will Schenn better know how to read the flow of the game? Will Grabovski improve on faceoffs and, in Wilson's words, "learn to stomp on a loose puck, particularly in the defensive zone?"

That will be the beginning of Wilson's body of work with the Maple Leafs, the way the success or failure of him and his staff is measured. That, too, is how it should be.