Toronto Maple Leafs coach GM issues??

Question

On any message board I read I keep seeing that John Ferguson Jr must go, from leafs fans. I wonder how much control he really has. What Toronto has needed for years is the kind of house cleaning that the Flyers made last year to move out the old former greats, rebuild the farm system and then have the cap space to go after high profile free agents. The question is had JFJ went that route last year when some of these guys ( Tucker, sundin, some of the dmen) had decent trade value, would the ownership group and the fans have supported him? Would they support him to do it this year knowing it means a 50 pt season this year and maybe next as Toronto does not have the young core Philly had?

It seems to me as if the GM in Toronto has limited power with respect to what he can do and is stuck with Band-aid solutions to try to sneak into the playoffs year after year.

LITY, yeah BUrns seemed to have a 3 year shelf life wherever he went. A comitted Ownership seems to be key. Here in MTL things have improved significantly in terms of the front office with Gilette in as owner and Molson out. Hopefully we will see the results on the ice soon. It seems as if corporate ownership too easily sacrifices the future for today. Many run their business with too much focus on this qtr's results with little regard to next years.

Luvmy- I agree, there is little we can do as fans in the short term. The seats will still be full in the TO's and MTL's of the league.

Answer 1

The Leafs have had a poor hierachy ever since the merger with the Raptors.

Prior to the merger with Raptors, the Leafs had an owner situation, a President, a General Manager, and a Coach.

In 1992, the owner was Anastaios (Steve) Stavros, the general manager was Cliff Fletcher, and the coach was Pat Burns. The team was successful under this regime as they made the playoffs every year, made it to within a game of the Stanley Cup final twice...etc etc

Then in 1995, the players stopped listening and Burns was canned in 1996 for Nick Beverly, who in turn was replaced by Mike Murphy in Aug 1996

Two years under Murphy and both Fletcher and Murphy were gone. At this point Stavros started into discussions with Tannenbaum about a joint deal that would see the Leafs and Raptors as co-tenants of the ACC.

Stavros brought in Ken Dryden as President. Dryden brought in a triumvirate of GMs with Mike Smith, Anders Hedberg, and Bill Watters. This triumvirate hired Pat Quinn as coach. Smith didn't like the triumvirate situation and left for Chicago (and took his Ph.D in Russian with him), Hedberg resigned, and Watters was left with the job.

Once the merger was completed, and with Stavros dying, Larry Tannenbaum managed to get control of the newly created MLSE in conjunction with the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan and the Thomson Corporation. The Thomson Corporation eventually sold their shares to the OTPP.

Peddie and Dryden didn't think that Watters could do it alone, and they hired Pat Quinn to be GM as well as coach.

This was the start of the best 7 year run in Toronto history from a Winning PCT perspective. In 2001 Dryden left to pursue federal politics, and Peddie moved to be the in-charge guy with the Leafs and fired Watters, leaving Quinn as GM and coach (and a Semi-Final appearance followed in 2002). In 2003, Peddie was getting weary of Quinn's power and asked him to step away from one of the two positions. Quinn chose to step away from being a GM< and John Ferguson Jr was hired (after several other people turned down the job). Ferguson Jr. and Quinn did not get along at all, and after failing to convince Peddie to fire JFJ, JFJ fired Quinn.

Both Peddie and JFJ need to go. Bryan Colangelo threatens peddie's job on the basketball side, and the current success of that team and the current lack thereof by the hockey team should theoretically push Peddie out.............but Peddie helped seal the coup that pushed out Bitove and got Tannenbaum the Raptors...and helped push out Stavros and give Tannenbaum control of MLSE.

If Peddie goes, Tannenbaum could re-hire Pat Quinn as President, and he in turn would be able to get a great GM, who in turn could hire a great coach.

Every poll you read in the Toronto Sun, or on the FAN590 suggests that the fans want Quinn back. He is the most successful coach and GM in NHL history who has never won a Stanley Cup ring (not everybody can win them) and unfortunately was ousted by the wrong people, and it never sits well when you get ousted by an inferior talent.

Answer 2

I believe JFJ will take the fall for something that is largely out of his hands. There was a good article in the Toronto Star today about that situation. Basically the gist of it was that the owners are making most of the BIG decisions. These owners are nothing about hockey. It is all business with them. They rarely if EVER attend games. They roll around in all the cash that is brought in by Leafs fans blindly following the pied piper. Until that changes and people wake up and stop going to games to watch sub par overpaid talent and throwing away hard cash to MLSE nothing will happen. I for one, am a loyal Leaf Fan. I will always be a Leaf fan but I am am at the point now that I am beyond fed up at the mediocre play of the past few years. I am lucky. I am also a Caps fan. I can most assuredly tell you I will follow more Caps games this season than Leafs games. That has NEVER been the case with me. The Leafs have always had priority. It is to bad that me not watching the Leafs on TV will not make a difference. I cannot EVER afford to go to a Leafs game @home, so I guess other than losing that one tv rating I mean f**k all to the Leafs.

Answer 3

I've also heard the same thing about JFJ and rebuilding the Leafs. People are saying to oust Sundin even. For the past few years, Pat Quinn got the blame....and so far, nothing has proven that Maurice is the answer either. The former goalies (including Belfour) also got the blame.

For some reason, I'm not seeing the light either. Perhaps we need to smudge (bless) the locker room and possibly the entire ACC? Nothing seems to be clicking....could they be cursed?

Answer 4

It's not his decision, it's all about the ownership group and their need to make money. Quite frankly, they could dress a Bantam team in Leaf uniforms and put them on the ice and people would still go to the damned games. The only way MLSE will move to an agressive approach to improving their hockey product is IF a second team was dropped in the market (Hamilton Thrashers anyone).

Answer 5

kThere is only one thing that will again make the Leafs respectable
The fans have to stay away until ownership makes a commitment to put things back on track.
The fans are so fanatical they keep throwing their loyalty and money at the team no matter what.
Ownership figures, why fix it we are making tons of money.
After all the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund owns a majority share of the team and they only want one thing, Big Profits.
Let the profits dwindle to nothing for a year or two and see how long its takes to put a good team together.
JFJ is a figurehead only, someone to take the heat but you been smoking the weed if you think he or his staff make any major decisions.

Answer 6

JFJ is the worst thing to ever happen to the Leafs.

Pat Quinn ranks up there.

But the managment has made WAY to many mistakes.. i say give us another 20 years LOL