Team President Brendan Shanahan has the confidence and support of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment’s Board of Directors to implement a complete restructuring of the Toronto Maple Leafs organization, which started with the firing of GM Dave Nonis, the entire coaching staff and most of the scouting department on Sunday.
The Leafs are going down the complete rebuild road for the first time after decades of short term fixes and patchwork to keep the club competitive and profitable, but the key for Shanahan to be able to carry his plan through is to maintain that level of support through the next few difficult years.
“The dysfunction of the (MLSE) board is what I have always maintained has been the problem in Toronto.… Former Assistant GM Bill Watters said in an interview on Tuesday. “When I was there, (former Leafs chairman) Steve Stavro was ‘the board’. Pat Quinn answered to ‘the board’, Steve Stavro. We did not have the meddling and the middling that they’ve had since Steve left. It’s just been probably the most dysfunctional group of businessmen put together.…
Shanahan was careful not to put any timetable on how long it would take to get the Leafs back to respectability and that sticking with the plan is most important, but Watters believes that the Hall-of-Famer has less than the four years remaining on his contract to turn things around before his support starts to crumble and will have to show signs of progress with success in the NHL Draft and being able to get good returns in trades for veterans Phil Kessel, Joffrey Lupul and Dion Phaneuf.
The search for a new general manager will take place in the coming weeks and the preliminary list that includes former Washington GM George McPhee, LA Kings VP of Hockey Operations Mike Futa, Nashville Asst GM Paul Fenton and Tampa Bay assistants Julien BriseBois and Pat Verbeek may be increased by one, as the Boston Bruins fired GM Peter Chiarelli on Wednesday.
Chiarelli’s name has been mentioned in connection to Toronto and TSN’s Darren Dreger believes that the Leafs should have interest in the Stanley Cup winning GM, but that the current management structure with assistants Mark Hunter and Kyle Dubas in place and Shanahan having day-to-day input into hockey operations would not be a good fit.
“Brendan Shanahan is not going to bring in somebody who thinks he knows more than Brendan does.… Watters said. “So Brendan has got to find a guy who he’s comfortable with, probably with whom he played and be able to work with him as a president and general manager hand in glove or hire (Mike) Babcock as the coach and director of player personnel and Mark Hunter as GM.…
Listen to the full interview with Bill Watters here:
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Playoff Predictions
Four first round Stanley Cup Playoff matchups begin on Wednesday and here are my predictions:
Montreal Vs Ottawa : It is tough to be critical of a team that had 110 points, won the Atlantic Division and has the likely Hart Trophy winner in goaltender Carey Price, but Price cannot score goals and the Habs mediocre offense could be their undoing.
Top scorer Max Pacioretty will play in Game 1 on Wednesday, but he will likely not be 100% after suffering an upper body injury late in the regular season. The Habs will have to get production from Alex Galchenyuk, Tomas Plekanec, Brendan Gallagher and like secondary sources Dale Weise, Rene Bourque and Daniel Briere did last season.
Ottawa enters the playoffs as the hottest team in the NHL with nine players who scored in double digits, Erik Karlsson reasserting himself as one of the best offensive defenseman in the league and Andrew Hammond going 20-1-2 down the stretch.
The concern for Sens is that they will be mentally satisfied that they made the playoffs or that the Cinderella story of Hammond will end abruptly in the pressure filled atmosphere of the Bell Center.
Prediction: Sens in 7
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Washington vs NY Islanders
The Caps had a strong second half, as Alex Ovechkin eclipsed the 50 goal plateau for the second straight year and Braden Holtby making a case for being in the mix for the Vezina Trophy. The addition of free agent blueliners Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen helped make Washington a more defensively sound club under Barry Trotz.
The Islanders struggled down the stretch after being one of the stronger teams in the Eastern Conference for most of the season, but the additions of an experienced playoff goalie in Jaroslav Halak, Stanley Cup winners Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy on the blueline and a superstar in John Tavares give them a chance to advance past the first round.
The series may ride on whether Jack Capuano can get his club to tighten up defensively(NY allowed 230 goals against, more than any other playoff team) and get production from youngsters Anders Lee, Brock Nelson and Ryan Strome.
New York will have to overcome the loss of shutdown defender Travis Hamonic, who matched up against Sidney Crosby every shift two years ago and would have drawn that assignment against Ovechkin this year.
Prediction: Capitals in 6
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Chicago vs Nashville
The Hawks championship pedigree is without question and the return of star winger Patrick Kane for the first round comes as a bit of a surprise. Chicago struggled near the end of the season, going under .500 in the final 10 games, losing first in the Central to St. Louis and home ice to the Preds. Deadline additions did not bolster the club as well, as veteran Antoine Vermette will be a healthy scratch for Game 1.
Nashville are the Montreal Canadiens of the Western Conference, heavily reliant on goaltender Pekka Rinne and a deep blueline with Shea Weber, Roman Josi and Seth Jones to generate offense. The Preds have more offensive weapons than in the past, as 20-year-old Filip Forsberg and veteran Mike Ribiero scored over 60 points each.
The key for Nashville will be Rinne outperforming Hawks goalie Corey Crawford in the series and for Mike Fisher to be effective in neutralizing Jonathan Toews. The key for Chicago is how effective Kane will be after missing the last seven weeks of the regular season with a broken collar bone.
Prediction: Hawks in 6
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Calgary vs Vancouver
The second all-Canadian series is a battle between two evenly matched clubs who both had to intense playoff hockey down the stretch to make the post-season.
The Canucks have the edge in experience, as the Sedin twins, Chris Higgins, Alex Burrows, Alex Edler, Dan Hamhuis and Kevin Bieksa were part of the club’s 2011 run to the Stanley Cup Final, while the young core of the Flames(Sean Monahan, Johnny Gaudreau and TJ Brodie) will be playing in the post-season for the first time.
Vancouver has a slight goaltending controversy entering the playoffs, as Eddie Lack starts the series over Ryan Miller, who missed six weeks with a knee injury, while Calgary will sink or swim with Jonas Hiller.
The key to the series is how dynamic performers like Gaudreau and Monahan react to playoff intensity and whether Calgary’s blueline can maintain their high-level of play without Mark Giordano.
Prediction: Flames in 7
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