John Ferguson Jr. Finally Fired...The Leafs Still Suck

Yesterday, the Toronto Maple Leafs acted on the worst-kept secret floating around the NHL and in particular, Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) - they gassed their General Manager John Ferguson Jr., after a fairly abysmal record at the helm for the past...what is it now...four or five years?

I agree that Ferguson had to go, but as I have said before, I don't think that the problem is entirely with Ferguson, despite the fact that yes, he was inexperienced, he made some really bad choices, and to a degree, he showed some incompetence. The root problem rests with MLSE and its board, especially that idiot Richard Peddie (who is a meddler to the extreme). Sure, he brought on Brian Colangelo for the Raptors and gave him full autonomy to run basketball operations, but the MLSE board has never been as instrusive with their basketball operations anyway - rather, it's the hockey operations that they've always poked their nose into (and I mean Peddie here). I mean, despite what Ferguson may or may not have done, he did show class up to the end, refusing to bad-mouth the organization - I heard him being interviewed by several media sources on my way home last night...and this despite the fact that he was hung out to dry several months ago - even half a year ago, when Peddie wanted to bring on a "mentor" for Ferguson. Why not just get rid of him then? Then Peddie publicly admits he made a mistake hiring Ferguson - I'm not sure why Peddie doesn't step down himself - he hired Ferguson! And who was at the helm before Ferguson? Another inexperienced (albeit well-known) GM in Ken Dryden. When you start hiring duds, I'm not sure you can keep blaming it on the dud. I do find it interesting that the search committee that Peddie put together includes interim GM Cliff Fletcher, local Toronto sports lawyer (and frequent guest on the local sports radio station) Gord Kirke...and....HIMSELF! If this is not meddling or the epitome of micro-management, I don't know what is.

And then the whole soap opera of the past few weeks with public speculation about Ferguson's future. It's tough to do your job when you know that they are planning to terminate you. But to Ferguson's credit, he kept his mouth shut and kept punching into the office. In that vein, I think Peddie is classless, gutless and I have zero respect for him. I actually hope that the Leafs continue to suck badly, so the pressure will be to get rid of him. Of course, I totally question how the Leafs report to a board, whereas most teams have a single owner - less bureaucracy.

Now, as for interim GM Cliff Fletcher - good choice, but they tossed him out 10+ years ago, so I'm surprised he's back (considering the fact that he never got along with Larry Tanenbaum. I heard the news conference on the way home from work yesterday and it sounds like this is Fletcher's last stop in the hockey world. It's just as well. How old his he now? 70? Still, during Fletcher's first time with the Leafs, he did make some really good trades and draft picks (although he made some poor ones as well). I'm sure Cliff will be able to right the ship, though he and MLSE have made it abundantly clear that he is here short-term (think the contract is for 19 months, with it being initially an interim GM role that will morph into a consultant role).

I'm no expert, but let's talk about the problems here. People focus on Sundin, but that's only one of the things to consider (Sundin is around 35/36, has a no-trade clause, and will be an unrestricted free agent by the end of the season). It would make sense to trade him rather than lose him, but if you look at the way he's played, he continues to show himself to be the heart of the team. He's their top point-getter. Shows leadership on and off the ice. A tremendously hard worker. Makes around 5 million this season, but if you were to trade him, what would you get for him? Based on his age, who would want him? Sure, older players have, in the past year or so, joined teams to offer a veteran presence, but look how some of these have worked out (Mark Recchi, anyone?) Aside from the Sundin question, and in a similar vein, another issue the fat contracts that Ferguson awarded to really mediocre players. Now the Leafs are stuck with these underperforming and overpaid players (a bad combination) - they can't unload them because of both reasons. They can't keep them because of the enormous hit on the cap. Buying them out will be costly. Right now, the Leafs best hope is that they will just tank and hopefully get some decent draft picks. If they tank for two years in a row, there's a better chance of them getting good picks like John Tavares next year, but even that's no guarantee.

There's always drama in Leaf-land...

What Is Gary Bettman Trying to Prove?

I don't know about you, but if you're a hockey fan like me, don't you get sick of hearing about the constant woes of the Nashville Predators? Without going into painstaking detail, the owner of the Predators, Craig Leopold, has been trying to sell the Predators for months. In the time he has owned the Predators, they have been a consistently losing investment. Yes, the team is talented and has put a good product on the ice, and has been in the upper echelon of teams in the NHL, but come on, the team is in friggin' Nashville, for Pete's sake. Hardly a bastion of hockey fandom. Case in point - last year in the playoffs, when Nashville was ranked #1 or #2 or #3 in their conference, local Nashville papers and sports programs didn't even cover or talk about the playoff games in progress. That's because no one cares about hockey down there.

Earlier this year, the CEO of Research in Motion, Jim Balsillie, offered to buy the team and was willing to essentially overpay for the team. Talks were set in motion and they were close to a deal, when Balsillie tipped his hand and started to sell season tickets in the Hamilton area for a hockey team that had yet to relocate there. The NHL and it's commissioner, Gary Bettman found out about this, and persuaded Leopold to pull the plug on the deal. Since then, no one has offered anything even close to what Balsillie offered.

I am disappointed that Balsillie got railroaded by the NHL. Yes, he didn't play it smart and kept his mouth shut until the deal was done, but why the NHL nixed it because of his clear intentions to re-locate, I will never understand. Moving it to Hamilton or Kitchener-Waterloo would be a huge boost to the local economy, but more than that, it would breakdown the monopolizing power of Maple Leafs Sports Entertainment (MLSE) and would immediately force the Leafs to put a competitive product on the ice (as we speak, the Leafs are in familiar territory this year - mediocre to suckedness). Hamilton/KW would have easily supported another NHL franchise - OK, so the Leafs (and possibly Sabres) will feel some pressure, but so what? Competition is good. Monopoly is bad.

What I find strange is that Leopold wants to sell the team - he is desperate to do so. But he won't sell to Balsillie, because of Balsillie's clear intent to move the team. Balsillie is not a dumb guy - he knows the team won't survive in Nashville, and he also knows that Leopold lost a truckload of money over the years. But somehow Bettman convinced Leopold not to sell (my guess is that the NHL offered to top off any lower offer to make it worth Leopold's while). Nowadays, a consortium of people are trying to save the Preds but putting together an offer, complete with arena rights and so forth.

Why can't Bettman just realize that pushing professional hockey in the U.S. will be a long-term losing proposition. He is too proud to admit that his experiment did not work, that's why. His cronie, Bill Daly, the NHL Vice-President, was on a radio talk show this past summer and he was asked point blank whether Bettman is anti-Canada. Daly skirted the issue and refused comment.

Fact of the matter is, there is not really a whole lot of success stories to report on the expansion teams. Why they stuck a team in Columbus, OH, I will never know. Even some seasoned teams like the Chicago BlackHawks are having problems drawing people into the game. Rather than focussing on existing teams, Bettman seems to have this otherworldly mentality that he must expand, and now his crazy head is looking at over the pond in Europe and Scandanavia.

If you look at the other commissioners in sports (David Stern for the NBA, Roger Goddell for the NFL), they are doing things right. They make sure that the current teams are not flat broke, and they are ensuring that they don't expand if the conditions aren't right. And they are not afraid to yank teams from markets that are simply not working. Bettman needs to take a look at these successful commissioners who are out to better their respective leagues, not just make themselves look good.