A Pretty Good Deal

So is this the day the "John Ferguson is a Genius!" emails flood in?

Has to be, right?

Everyone, including this writer, has hammered JFJ over and over and over for the inflated Bryan McCabe contract. The Ed Belfour and Tie Domi deals were similarly panned, and there has been a picture painted that Ferguson is utterly incapable of making smart business arrangements with players.

Well, then how to explain the Nik Antropov contract?

Actually, Ferguson was slammed by many for that one as well, a two-year extension last June that will pay the Kazakh $1.95 million this season and $2.15 million next season.

He's got 29 points in 29 games, including 14 goals, good enough for 22nd on the NHL scoring list. That's one spot below Daniel Briere, who's in the first year of an eight-year, $52 million contract. Antropov has the same number of points as Jason Spezza (seven years, $49 million) and Ryan Getzlaf (five years, $27 million).

Now, that's not to say Antropov is as good as Briere, Spezza or Getzlaf.

But at his current salary, he appears to be an excellent bargain.

I get many emails from people wondering "Why do you defend John Ferguson so much?" Well, it's not up to me to defend him. But I am convinced he's not a complete village idiot, as some contend, and that he's done one or two good things during his tenure as Leaf GM, and that he was put in a very difficult position when he took the job and working for MLSE is no walk in the park.

In the case of Antropov, he's seems to have engineered a very good deal for the Leafs. You may not like everything he does, or very much at all, but you've got to give him credit for that one.

Comments

[Francesco]

I had hope in Antropov until the multiple knee surgeries. I slammed him as hard as anyone else more because of his brains than his speed or skill. Then last season I became converted because it looked like he was turning his game around. I cheered for him, thought JFJ's signing of him in the summer was a smart move, and my revived hopes for him have been validated in this early part of the season.

Speaking of JFJ, I've disliked some of his deals because of contract lengths and salaries and player options vs club options, but more often than not I feel sorry for him and the position he's in. He's more unfortunate than incopetent. But hey, this is one guy's opinion and I never met the man. Best of luck, Ferguson, whatever happens to you.

[Mia Cumaaraesinya]

One deal is not good enough, he has made numerous death blow moves that are inexcusable. The man should be fired period. This team has no present, no future and no hope unless real hockey people step in now before he trades another first rounder for a bag of pucks so that he can lose in the first round of the playoffs.

[Roberto Calazar]

My view of JFJ moves considering salry, players lost and future potential
The good: Antropov, Poni, Kilger, Gill, Sundin,
The OK: Toskala (could be good), Kaberle, Deveraux, Kubina , Pohl
The bad: Leetch, Francis, Johannsen, McCabe, Tucker, Blake (so far)
The really really ugly: Raycroft

[D]

Baah.
He inherited Nik Antropov. So no kudos for acquiring him.
Antropov had little bargaining power.
Had he walked this past summer, he would've received a similar contract without much of a bidding war for his services.
This was brainless move.
I give JFJ no credit for this, aside from the fact he had the presence of mind to prevent one of the Leafs assets from walking.

[Sanj]

if the Leafs remain in the playoff hunt near the trade deadline then I can see JFJ trading draft picks or some young player like Tulsty for old aging veteran. I hope that happens!! :-)

[PPP]

You can argue about the future prospects of the club or whether JFJ has made a good deal or not but on the whole Mia is right: JFJ has to be fired. Judge him by his complete record and there is no other conclusion but if the team starts playing well I am sure that there will be some people in the media calling for him to be extended.

As for Antro, I have always been a huge fan and it's great to see him giving us an extended glimpse of his skills (as he has for significant portions of each of the past few years) but let's hold our breaths on the good deal talk until he has stayed healthy all year. You'll jinx him!

p.s. Damien, I can't remember but weren't you slamming the Antropov deal?

[Rob Smith]

Hey as Don Cherry might say, "a broken clock finds the odd blind squirrell twice a day"- - So what if JFJ signed Antropov? He didn't have anyone to replace the guy with. Antropov wasn't a truly bad player, like say McCabe and Kubina. He wasn't worth the money and wasn't living upto his billing. Now he's getting somewhere. Ferguson's still a loser. Check the salary difference - McCabe should have to pay Antropov's contract rather than keep stealing his salary

[garret thomson]

Make no mistake, Atropov is kicking ass, albeit with a little help from the perpetual determined man on a futile mission, Sundin. (To this day, I can't understand why Sundin doesn't want to be moved ..) Yes, hes a deal. But the Leafs, as a corporation, love a good deal; fans, on the other hand, don't give a rats ass. I agree with you that JF isn't an idiot, but that doesn't mean more entertainment could be derived from his firing than from watching the leafs trying to play when the pressure is on to win. I'm of the opinion that this recent win streak doesn't really change things. Its a team of players that function best when theres no expectations, in a hockey market that has the highest. At least Montreal is entertaining when they lose.

[Dave Kearney]

It was hard to argue the signing of Antropov -- a 19-20 goal scorer last year for 2 million. The signing of Ponikarovsky was also a very good deal for the Leafs. The criticism for these guys often comes because they are second line players playing on the first line. If you think of both of them as second line players, their value becomes clearer.

Thanks to Damien for pointing out the good as well as the bad.

[Sandy T.]

As for Ferguson, he's not The Guy and even a blind squirrel etc... as for Antropov, it's all going very nicely, and it's good to see a decent, long-suffering guy doing well for himself, but c'mon everybody, what with the conditioning we've been subjected to aren't we all waiting like Pavlovian mutts for the injury shoe to hit the floor? Ol' Nik has always had a ton of potential, but every time it looked as if he might be reaching it... well, you all know the stories and the history.

I wish him well, but at this point I'm still only cautiously optimistic his 'breakout year' will be a full one.

[Joe Mamone]

You're a moron! Let’s see what Antropov has at the end of the season and compare them to Briere and Spezza. Antropov does this every year goes hot and then goes cold, he has 29 points now if he even get to 60 I'll bend over and kiss my own A**! JFJ had nothing to do with this; He has signed about 7 no talent players so far one of them had to work out! The time is now to fire him before he trades even more talent away! (Not that the Leafs have any)

[daoust]

the antropov deal is great. kaberle for $4MM (or whatever it is) is genius as well.

compared with the rest of the D in the league, mccabe and kubina's contracts aren't going to look all that bad, assuming they continue to play decent. guys like jovo, scott hannan, souray, hamrlik, redden, schneider etc etc etc all have "inflated" contracts as well, we just happen to be in a market that pays a little more attention to it (i don't think the coyotes rabid fan base goes on an on about jovo's $6MM or whatever it is...). the one criticism that is valid is that there's just no need to have 3 offensively minded d-men making $4-6MM on one team. brian burke is going to have that problem with neidermayer back, and i wouldn't be surprised if schneider gets dealt.

and i love how people don't want to give JFJ credit for antro since he wasn't the one who drafted him. he had the good hockey sense to recognize antro's talent and sign him to a very reasonable contract. and i'm sure these are the same people who were calling for antropov to be traded every year for the last 5 years. and if JFJ had traded him, and he had a great year this year on another team, these people would be chastising JFJ for letting him walk. it's truly a no win situation for him - until this team wins a cup, every decision he makes is the wrong one.

[johnny eh]

damien

Well......everybody gets lucky at one time or another mate.....

[T S]

Give me a break. This is only 30 games. Re-visit this topic after the season is over, then we can say whether this is a good deal or not. No matter, one good deal but endless bad ones does not make a good manager.

[Harpreet S. Mann]

Antro might be playing well now, but he is clearly a player whose confidence is easily shaken. When Sundin is gone or starts on his inevitable decline, how good will he be then? Do not be surprised at all if Antro starts to struggle in the future for any number of reasons. Mr. Cox You claim not to be a leaf fan, but your all out support for Antropov and general comparisons to Spezza and Briere (are you crazy!!)after 30 games clearly shows you have a lot of 'leaf fan'characteristics.

..LETS GO RAPTORS!

[GDragon]

It sure seems like there are a lot more people claiming that they've always been Antropov supporters than there were actual Antropov supporters not too long ago, doesn't it? I guess everyone loves to jump on a good "I told you so" bandwagon...

[Leo Sanchez]

In Spanish we have a number of sayings to describe the influence of JFJ[sucks] on Antropov's signing: "chepa" meaning pure unadulterated chance; "se la encontro" meaning it luckily hit him [rather than the other way around]; and the best one, "se le aparecio la virgen" meaning the Virgin Mary appeared to him, you get the idea.

[Moe Green]

Just a couple quick comments on the Andropov signing, the Leafs and Mr Cox.

On the Andropov signing, I would have to agree that, in retrospect, it was a good deal. The problem with JFJ is that most of his deals (nearly all of them in fact) have been bad deals regardless of how they turned out. Take the Raycroft trade for example. Even if Raycroft had turned out to be a solid starting minder, the reasoning behind the signing was flawed. Why sign an unproven starter for a top prospect and extended said unproven starter before he had a chance to prove himself. At the time of the signing, was Raycroft any more of a certainlty than the tandem of Tellqvist and Aubin with Rask waiting in the wings? Of course not, and that is the problem with most of JFJ's moves. JFJ deserves no more credit for the Andropov signing than he does for inking Sundin. For every so-called good move, there are three or four Darcy Tucker, Brian MCCabe, Tie Domi, Ed Belfour, Yanick Perreault, Pavel Kubina, Bates Battaglia's to keep his reputation as a terrible GM intact.

I think it is fair to say that even within his true, though entirely unspoken mandate, which is to ignor any serious attempt to win a Stanley Cup but to squeek into the playoffs at any cost, he has done a very, very poor job.

Just a final note of Mr Cox. I heard you say the other day that you are not a Leaf's Fan. I have to ask how you manage to put any passion at all into your writing? If you are not a fan, if you have no rooting interest, then how do you manage, why do you bother to write a column in the first place? Is it simply an academic excersize for you or are you just in it for the money? Do you have a rooting interest for any team in the NHL and if so whom and why don't you go and get a a job writing about them? Don't you think you would have a lot more passion and isn't that what writing is all about?

Being a fan of a sport without having a specific rooting interest is kinda the problem with sports today. Its all about money, not team or city loyalty. You write about the Leafs because it's part of your job description, nothing more.

It's a little like playing for a team but not caring whether your team wins or loses. Can you really be expected to play that hard or write that well?

[mark]

Revisionist historians. That's what Leaf fans are. Everytime the wind blows a certain way, they all swear they knew it was coming. Who is the president of the Antipov fan club anyways? As for Ferguson, he's made some good moves but he has made more bad. Anyone who is satisfied with his performance demonstrates just how sad it is to be a Leafs fan. Satisfied with the possibly of sneaking into the playoffs; satisfied with MLSE will pocketing the gate for 2 playoff games; satisfied with jacking up season ticket prices; satisfied with putting more games exclusive to Leafs TV paid viewership; satisfied with JFJ. One thing and one thing only will convince me that JFJ has a future as a GM: blow it up in February and build a team of young talent. The core of this team is not capable of a Stanley Cup and anyone who is satisfied with anything less is a loser.