OTTAWA (May 1) -- Anyone familiar with this corner during the past month will know that yours truly has spoken out strongly against the Toronto Maple Leafs and captain Mats Sundin continuing their long association. I see little benefit in the Leafs retaining Sundin as their focal point, and there is virtually nothing to be gained for Sundin to wallow any longer in a futile pursuit of the Stanley Cup. It's not going to happen in Toronto during his remaining years, and Mats would better serve himself and his playing legacy if he sought to finish his career with a team genuinely committed to winning a championship. It doesn't appear that either is going to happen.
But, you've got to wonder if Sundin is starting to have second thoughts... finally. The story that was leaked yesterday to Toronto Sun columnist Steve Simmons has clearly enraged Sundin, who probably requires a minor form of hip surgery, but not the sort that would jeopardize the remainder of his career, as it did with ex-teammate Alexander Mogilny. Simmons got a solid scoop, and justifiably ran with it. It's the biggest sporting news in Toronto on a day when the NBA Raptors are about to tip off in an elimination playoff game against New Jersey. But, the problem here runs much deeper than the severity of Sundin's hip ailment, and it's a symptom of a far-more encompassing malady in the Leafs' organization.
This is a club, in the upper reaches, that emanates nothing beyond dysfunction. There is no apparent consensus on any critical matter relating to the team as it pertains to the 2007-08 NHL season. The hockey board is practically crippled in its divide over the merits of general manager John Ferguson. As it currently stands, Ferguson will go into the 2007 NHL Draft, and enter the '07-08 campaign in an all-too familiar lame-duck mode -- his one-year contract option having been exercised by the club last November -- but with the lingering sense that he's not in command of anything that matters. A giant red flag should have flashed in the minds of every Leafs supporter when CEO Richard Peddie claimed recently that the board needs "a plan" from Ferguson before determining his employment status. This, after allowing the GM to cast in cement the future of the hockey club over the next half-decade by issuing lucrative, restrictive and long-term deals to the core players on the roster [McCabe, Kaberle, Tucker, Raycroft, Kubina, Gill, etc.]. How that doesn't constitute a "plan" already in place is anyone's guess, but the board is apparently awaiting some form of Einstein-like thesis from Ferguson. That's the way corporations operate. Plans, graphs, pie-charts... that kind of thing. It works great for IBM, but it does nothing to enhance the progression of a hockey team.
There has not been a peep of support for the beleaguered GM since Leafs bowed out of playoff contention on the final day of the regular season. And, it's not as if nobody has inquired. The club is fully aware of the perception that Ferguson is dangling by a thread once again, yet his employers have done nothing to dispel the notion. There isn't a person above Ferguson with a shred of hockey acumen, or with any appreciable background in the sport. Just good businessmen who know how to rake in obscene profits, but radiate nothing beyond mass confusion when it comes to operating the company's primary asset.
It is in this circumstance that Sundin inexplicably ventures to continue. He has risen above the organizational rot on so many occasions over the years -- boldly standing in the line of fire and trying to rationalize the incompetence surrounding him -- that you would understand if he finally wanted out. In fact, it's difficult to understand why he apparently wants to stay. Now, he's under the impression that a scheme has been hatched in the club's executive suite; that by leaking an exaggerated version of his hip problem, a person of influence is attempting to "sabotage" [Sundin's own words] his future with the club. Or, as agent, J.P. Barry wonders, "Does someone not want to sign Mats Sundin? Is there someone with an interest in trying to make him look bad? I don't know where this [career-threatening hip surgery] information comes from. But, as I said last night, it's completely false."
Barry's query may or may not have merit. What is all but certain, however, is that the Leafs' hierarchy simply cannot get it together on the issue of who is going to run the hockey club next season, or whether the team's 36-year-old stalwart is part of the equation.
Why Mats Sundin wants to be part of this crap any longer simply boggles the mind.
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