Inertia

It seems virtually certain that the NHL season and playoffs will end, and the Maple Leafs will still be without a new Great Helmsmen.

Ask them and they'd tell you that doesn't matter, that they already have fabulous people in place to make all the necessary decisions. Of course, if that were the case, why would they be looking to hire people?

RENE JOHNSTON/TORONTO STAR

Psst, probably not a good idea to rent while you're here.

Meanwhile, the rest of the hockey world snickers.

Increasingly, the Leafs seem to be settling on a curious plan that will see Cliff Fletcher remain in charge until Brian Burke shakes free of Anaheim, whether that's next month or next year. In the meantime, the Leafs are attempting to lure good hockey men with obscure promises of jobs with no authority under Fletcher.

That's what they were offering former Vancouver GM Dave Nonis, and likely what they plan to throw at ex-Dallas GM Doug Armstrong when he comes to Toronto to meet with the Leaf brass this week.

At least they were successful in getting permission from the Stars to talk to Armstrong, but that would be because owner Tom Hicks would love to get out from under the three years he still owes his former GM.

With those three years, of course, Armstrong can afford to be picky, and why in the world would he accept anything less than full GM powers from a lousy team like the Leafs, particularly since his resume for the past decade is much more impressive than Fletcher's? Moreover, if the rumours in the hockey world yesterday were correct, the St. Louis Blues may beat the Leafs to the punch and offer Armstrong a job as GM-in-waiting as early as today.

Think about it. Would you rather work with John Davidson, Al MacInnis, Larry Pleau and Andy Murray with a closet-full of solid prospects in St. Louis, or labour under Richard Peddie in Toronto?

What Peddie would love, of course, is for Fletcher to remain in charge so he can keep his job title as president, having lost basketball responsibilities when Bryan Colangelo took over the Raptors. Its all about territorial protection in the corporate world.

So unless Burke suddenly becomes available, the likeliest scenario appears to have Peddie remain as prez, Fletcher as interim GM and either one or more people without authority operating in a reconstituted hockey office.

Interesting but, as usual, utterly moronic.

Comments

[Sanj]

After watching a couple of games of the Stanley Cup finals, I feel that the Leafs are only about 30 good players, a good coaching staff, a good scouting staff, a good GM and a good president away from contending for the Stanley Cup!!!

[OddyOh]

No one of quality will accept this job without complete authority. So they'll likely keep Fletcher, unless they go the 'rookie GM' route again (we know how well that worked).

Worst management in hockey. On the bright side, Tavares is a Leaf for sure with this circus act going on. How do they think the players will perform on the ice with all this going on?! I'm guessing worse than this season.

I hope Sundin retires, or at least goes to another team. There's nothing left for him here.

[Kato B.]

Why do you attempt to mislead? Peddie is the Pres. of MLSE which owns both the Raps and Leafs. Peddie is not the Pres. of the Leafs. Colangelo, like Ferguson and now Fletcher, report to the board about major decisions. Peddie is involved in the hiring of Leafs management but he was also involved in the hiring of Colangelo. Your writing has become too predictable. Keep trying though.

[Don]

Any management structure that includes Richard Peddie as President of the hockey club is doomed to fail.
Just when you thnk that things couldn't get any worse....

[eyebleaf]

Damien Cox ripping the Leafs for trying to put together quality people in the hockey office. Shocking.

[Vic]

Hi Damien,
Can you tell me why the MLSE tall foreheads have chosen THIS offseason, of ALL offseasons to decide to pursue the purchase of an English League Football club. Here we fans are, expecting far reaching, future shaping decisions, that are suppposed to put this hockey club on track for the next 20 years, and the MLSE is AWOL. I just don't get it. I don't think you could look dumber than these guys if you tried.

[jp]

MLSE are a corporate entity...word to the media..GET OVER IT. the structure of team ownership from sly individuals are not the norm anymore, and it will never be unless the Leafs were bougth my a rich russian bilionnaire, and we know how that has worked out for chelsea..Or closer to home let's look at the Ottawa senators who many in the media sight as a great example. Melnyk bought a team that was already constructed with foundations in place, and not a great example of great ownership decisions. Mike Ilitch of the Red wings owned the team since the early 80s and they were not that great until the mid 90s so he didn't all of a sudden become a great owner. he made his mistakes over time. i think the media should stick to what it pretends to know (although not very well) which is individual hockey issues. no one will know if the leafs decision to hire a group of people and let a leader emerge will be a good one. but the media doesn't know either. the toronto media would never have allowed bill gates to succeed as a software developer in toronto, so it is definitely part of the problem as to why we don't have a successful hockey team.

fed up fan, with the negative media..grow up, its just a sport. analyze the sport and try to do it well. your are not experts in what corporate structures will or will not work in sports.

JP...

[Roberto Calazar]

Does "the rest of the hockey world snickers" have any basis at all in fact?
Can you point to a person or persons who have made a derogatory comment about the process?
Or is this to be discounted as cynical comments by a burned out Toronto hockey writer?

[Brett]

Damien,

Speaking of inertia...

Your writings are as trite as this Leafs debacle. Keep up the same thing, man. We're expecting it.

Brett

[joel]

if they are indeed waiting for Burke, then this stinks of tampering... i say this, because that waiting would insinuate that there is an agreement in place now.. Burke is under contract to his team at the moment..I think that the league must look into this or at least keep a close eye on this situation.. BUT on the other hand,, what if,Burke says NO to the Board next year... that would mean the Leafs are now another year off schedule in their search...

[Bill Laidlaw]

I question the arrogance of MLSE in upsetting so many quality hockey people as they attempt to get their cupboard in order. Nonis, Armstrong, and others have no need of MLSE while MLSE is in desperate need of quality hockey people in all departments. I believe hiring a manager like Brian Burke, giving him autonomy on all hockey decisions, and developing a winning Leaf identity is a wise choice by MLSE. Offending half the hockey world to do it, disillusioning fans, and making Cliff Fletcher look like a fool doing it however is a disgrace.

[Steve Vincent]

Unfriggin' believeable! No other market would tolerate this utter nonsense and out the door they would all be. Of course the problem is MLSE is making buckets of money and quite frankly that's really the only concern of the majority owner (Teacher's Pension Fund). What with the Raptors and their dissappointing season, the Argos not making it to the Grey Cup Game and the Jays up until recently underachieving, it's real tough being a Toronto sports fan these days.

["Sucker" Punch Imlach]

Why can't Burke just resign/quit in Anaheim and take the Leafs job?

[Phil Lajoie]

I still don't understand why Brian Burke is a prospect for the Leafs at all. Where has he been succesful? How long did he spend in Vancouver, with no opportunity for a Cup and, I believe, a number of missed playoffs. He won a cup in Anaheim, but didn't build that team; he just walked into it. This year's poor decisions, which included the offensive and groveling, desperate wait for retirees to return, lead to a disgraceful early exit.
Brian Burke is simply a mouthpiece, who does not understand the opportunities and responsibilities of the position, as demonstrated throughout this year and with the vitriol spewed at Kevin Lowe last summer, over what should have been a perfectly acceptable move by the Oiler's GM.
Cheers

[George Zeni]

LOL....why are we not suprised that Fletcher is going to hang around. The five year rebuilding process will never happen until Peddie and Fletcher are removed and the Board stops looking at the bottom line for once and opens the purse strings to attached good Management, which in turn, will bring good talent and prospects to this lousy team.

If the Maple Leaf's continue to perform as they have, the next genreation of "Leaf Fans" will not exist. We will have a town of Ottawa or Montreal fans. Remember, Toronto is not a hockey town, but a Leaf town, so it will result in less seat sales in the future. Laugh, you may, but that's my prediction.

[Barb Medeiros]

Hi Damien. Whatever happened to the talks with Scotty Bowman? I heard Peddie said MLSE wanted a "different direction" last year. That was last year. Times change. Any chance for renewed talks with Scotty?

Thanks

[M. Forbes]

Is this the best the Star Sports department can do? Is there really no one else on staff that can churn out 500 or so entertaining/ elightening words a few times a week?

There's a fascinating book called "Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure." The book, if the title wasn't clear enough, asks a broad range of people to describe their life in just six words.

In the spirit of that book, I would like to submit that the concluding sentence of this piece masterfully sums-up Mr. Cox's contribution to hockey writing over the past few years: "Interesting but, as usual, utterly moronic."

[PPP]

Wow, what a stunning amount of terrible comments.

joel - how is there any tampering when the Leafs asked for permission to speak to Burke and once they were declined they continued their process of interviewing other candidates?

Steve Vincent - the nonsense of trying to put together a solid front office and meeting the demands set by the fans? Yeah, I can't believe anyone would stand for them going through a reasoned and logical process to filling the President/GM/Coaching vacancies.

Bill Laidlaw - how is MLSE upsetting hockey people? They are doing nothing different from any other team with a GM vacancy. The only difference is that this search leads the news every damn day regardless of any progress.

George Zeni - How is Fletcher tied to Richard Peddie's failures? I hope you're not buying Damien's misleading spiel about Fletcher.

Finally...

Damien - Do you read your own paper? http://www.thestar.com/Sports/Hockey/article/431296
How can you suggest that Armstrong, Nonis, etc wouldn't want to join a management group in one breath and then suggest that they'd rather join the St. Louis Blues'...management group in the next? It would be nice if you ever answered questions in the comments...

[Martin]

Who cares? Hasn't it already been determined by the media, that the best course of action for the Leafs is to "suck" for the next 4-5 years? How else are they going to get prospects of worth? As such - isn't letting a team of semi-trained monkey's the best way to ensure this course of action? I see no problem in waiting a year for Burke - we're 5-6 years anyway (if ran properly - and getting many high draft picks during that time) before they're competative.

[Steve]

It's nice to see some hockey fans in this town are almost as fed up with the Toronto Media as they are the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Corporate management structures where teams report to a "board of governors" seem to work fine in lots of situations. Why there has to be 1 person in charge of everything all the time is a point that has been made rarely if ever by the Toronto Peanut Gallery.

Just for the record, the fact that St. Louis wants to "swoop in and hire Armstrong as their GM in waiting" doesn't make a lot of sense. They probably would like to add him to their front office team that already includes Davidson, MacInnis, Pleau, and a few other decent hockey minds.

It's a bit strange how on the one side writers hold up Detroit as such a great "team" because of their great hockey "culture" but when the Leafs discuss bringing in people who won't have veto power over everything, they're "idiots". Please explain this dichotomy.

[Patrick]

George Zent,

The sad part is that so many of the seats are corporately owned that season's ticket holders could roll over 5 times and the ACC still would sell out given the length of the waiting list. MLSE knows this so, don't expect don't wait for that prediction.

As for the negative accusations levelled against Cox, he's not supposed to be a mouthpiece for the Leafs. I say keep up the good work because the franchise needs to be humiliated as much as possible. Sometimes the truth simply hurts and this is coming from a Leaf fan.

[Al]

Well Damien, you did it, you got me thinking.

There are several points and observations id like to make comment of,,,

1st id like to talk about us, the fans. There are many different types of course, but all have something in common, there is something about a particular sport that brings something alive inside us.
For many of us, it is ingrained, instilled in youth. Set a little deeper in your soul with every puck you shot for the Stanely Cup winning goal in your driveway.
Becoming more a part of you every time you yelled "5 more minutes PLEASE?!?!?" so you could get one more shot at that cocky kid from down the street who never let anyone forget that HE was the best goalie in town.

Almost any hockey "fan" over 40 can replay in great detail watching Eddie Shack actually jump on the back of an opposing player he couldnt catch, presumably for a piggy back ride, or the great showman Guy Lafleur having a quick smoke on the bench during a game!!
Though few of us actually did see them happen, the memories of those events live within us like snapshots of our lives, it becomes part of us. The great moments themselves become part of the culture of the sport, just as we, the fans, do.

Darien, it became clear to me today from reading your story, you are one of those people, a true hockey fan.

They are usually easy to spot, quietly confident, understanding every little nuance of the game as if they were born to it. And we were.

The game...

We have watched the game evolve, rule changes leading to different ways of playing the game, different players come and go leaving thier mark.

But we the fans have dropped the ball in one respect, they have snuck in on our watch and we did not do anything to stop them.

In the past a team was owned by a rich hockey fan, there are still a few around (Stanley Cup shaped pizza anyone?), they owned a hockey team because they love the sport and want to build a winner.
Or even a group of rich buddies with the same goal in mind.
Building a winning team meant the difference between making and losing money that season, for players a winning season could be the difference between having to work a regular job in the summer or getting a new car.
Efforts were real, consequences were just as real for owners and for players.

Now players show up at the office like executives, no matter thier performance they will still be playing golf and living the high life all summer.
Of course there certainly are exceptions, but more and more we see players who dont play because its at the heart of who they are, but because its a good way to get rich and they happen to be good at it.

But its not the players who are to blame, we the fans dropped the ball.

We allowed corporate cancer to infect our game.

While we were watching the players, once corporate sponsers were now buying up teams. Now teams are owned by conglomerates, where the bottom line rules, making money is the goal, not the by product of a good season.

The problem is only worsened in a solid market such as Toronto.
The number of exectutive salaries carried by MLSE for the Leafs alone must be staggering. Even more insulting, they still get paid even after such poor performance by the team they are running.
These attitudes carry down, players get complaciant, everyone knows they are going to get paid regardless, just raise ticket prices.

Microsoft syndrome, doesnt matter if we put out a crap product we will still get rich.

As fans, as a hockey culture we are allowing this to happen. As individuals we would never stand for it,, would you take your car back to an overpriced mechanic who does a lousy job? or to the guy who runs a small shop does great work for reasonable prices because he loves what he is doing?

Better yet, to bring this to a close and at the same time give good reason why a single rich hockey loving team owner is better than a multi franchise owning conglomerate,,, look at the players currently in the cup finals, they almost all, on both teams, are playing for more than a paycheck.

Now lets look at who owns those teams.

I think I made my point.

[Imran Kalair]

What Peddie really needs is a sit down with Pat Gillick and Paul Beeston. Have him sit down with real champions who know how to build. Park your ego at the door and make decisions needed to bring pride back to MLSE.

[Steve]

Hopefully the rumours are true and their attempts to buy Leeds United are successful. They're as hated as the Leafs are outside of their own fan base, but more importantly it may lead the way to pro hockey here coming up with a relegation system. In the UK, no one has suffered as meteoric a drop as LUFC, so hopefully that can be foreshadowing for their brothers here and they'll be playing the Wheeling Nailers in front of 1,800 within 3 years. What's that? Ya, I know, but a guy can dream, can't he?

[Jay Pilgrim]

There is no doubt that Larry, Richard and Gord Kirke are outstanding in their respective business fields, but there is also little doubt that there will not be a successful hockey management core in place to guide the future of this storied franchise if the aforementioned trio are allowed to choose the next GM/President.
What should be occurring is that a true hockey person ought to be brought in
(like a Cliff Fletcher, John Muckler or a Scotty Bowman)
to choose a hockey management group which will have full control
to build a successful hockey team that will compete
year in and year out with the top teams in the NHL.
I do not believe that, at the end of the day, much will change
as to the fortunes of the Maple Leafs.
Unlike some of the suggestions that are often put forth,
I do not suggest that Leaf fans quit buying tickets
(or to sell the Season's tickets that many fans
have waited years to possess).
What I suggest is to hit Larry, Richard and Gord where it
hurts the most. One, for all Leaf fans everywhere, to not purchase any concession items or Maple Leaf mementos or sportswear until a change in attitude is made at the upper managenent of this organization.
Not one piece of popcorn, hotdog, softdrink, sweater, puck or jersey.
Secondly, lobby the NHL that a second franchise be established
within driving distance of the ACC. It the CBC, TSN, ESPN et al
(along with their product sponsors are informed that their products and services will be boycotted,
you can ensure the the NHL will give serious
consideration to placing another team in Ontario.
I welcome any and all feedback and criticisms to my comments.