Michael Jackson
But I hear ya pal.
Many of us questioned the the same thing with Cliff Fletcher and all the losers working for the Toronto Maple.
But is was crickets out of T.O and the league.
Dryden tried to do the right thing when it was thrown on his desk years later.
Fletcher went right on working in the NHL (and in Toronto)
Are you talking about the first time Cliff was the Leafs GM? Or the second time when he was an interim GM for 10 months?
Fletcher was two years removed from a cup with the Flames, as well as a finals appearance a few years before that. I’m not sure how anyone could think that was a controversial hire in 1991.
In 2008? Yeah, that was probably because he was already in the old boys Leafs club and had been the GM there before. He was interim for an entire offseason, which is rare that an interim lasts that long. He was already in his 70s at the time, which was ancient for a GM before Lou got to be that old and continued doing it.
I’m thinking they were tampering with Brian Burke the entire time, who controversially left the Ducks shortly after the start of the season (just a year after a cup win) and then took the Leafs job shortly after.
That was a hell of a lot more controversial than Brent Sutter stepping down as head coach here in the offseason because he was home sick, only to take the head coaching job from the team his brother is the GM for two weeks later. At least that was in the offseason. They both happened around the same time.