The Puck Stops Here

The Toronto Maple Leafs had a bad season that led to the firing of GM John Ferguson Jr partway through the year. He was replaced by former GM Cliff Fletcher on an interim basis. It was Fletcher's job to start a rebuilding scheme that presumably could be finished by the eventual permanent GM, while Fletcher stays on in an advisory role. The obvious problem to that plan is that the new GM may disagree with Fletcher's moves that have already been made or the overall philosophy involved, but that would be too bad because the moves have already been made and Fletcher is still around. The good news is the Leafs were in such a bad shape that Fletcher couldn't do much of substance. The most important Leaf players had no trade clauses that they wouldn't waive and thus could not be moved. Fletcher moved some lesser players for draft picks at trade deadline time. That was all he could do.

Now is the time to plan for the future. Now is the time to attempt to resign potential free agents. Now is the time to plan for the draft. Now is the time to pick a coach for the new season. Except that none of this can be done properly without a general manager in place. A permanent general manager. Not an interim GM who is looking to hire his replacement.

So, Cliff Fletcher has to make these decisions which would be better made by the next GM, which for some reason, the Leafs have yet to hire. Fletcher decided (partially) on the coach question. He fired Paul Maurice. That is not really a surprising move given the Leafs season, but it is one that would have been better left for the permanent GM.

As for the new GM, here is the current crazy plan (Leafs: 'We're Proactive. We're Looking Three Firings Ahead...'). The Leafs would hire recently fired Canuck GM Dave Nonis for one year then hand off the reigns to Brian Burke, Anaheim's GM. This of course assumes Burke wants to leave the successful team he built in Anaheim for the messed up Leafs. Afterall, Leaf fans believe everyone wants to join the Leafs if they can. They assume Nonis wants to join the Leafs when he is hired with a firing date already in mind. Worse, this scheme adds yet another layer of interim GM. There is no way a coherent plan to build the Leafs can happen if they hand over the reigns to a new GM every few months. The Leafs need to pick a new permanent GM now and let him run the show. No more interference from management. No more interim GMs. The longer this takes, the more decisions Cliff Fletcher is forced to make that might not be considered good ones to the permanent GM.

The news isn't that Paul Maurice was fired. The news is that the Leafs are doing everything backwards. They should have hired a new GM by now and let him fire or not fire Maurice.