Maple Leafs grant Islanders permission to speak to Brendan Shanahan (upd: released by Leafs)

[ManWithNoName]

Chris Johnston said it yesterday in his article...


"The hockey world is not exactly brimming with experienced high-end management talent, and arguably no one currently available has a stronger resume than Shanahan. Already a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame as a player, the 56-year-old spent five years in the NHL’s head office, rising to the position of the league’s senior vice president, before arriving in Toronto."


If there were more young/talented executives in NHL front offices you'd see more change and less recycling. Sadly there are not.

Well, they tried going the experienced route and that clearly failed. Trying someone with less experience but a lot of motivation surely wouldn’t hurt any team.

In my opinion the problem is the nepotism in the league. You can get any job you want, despite bad results, if you just know the right person.

 

[The Management]

 

[Breakers]

11 years

Move the hell on
Tim Lietwiki brought that guy in. And he left the organization before Covid

 

[Lahey]

Prob cost them millions in cap, and I'm a defender of Dubas.

It also cost us Seth Jarvis (to dump Marleau) lol

 

[SI90]

Wasted the prime years of Matthews and the rest of the core. Spent too much too soon and destroyed any chance of winning a cup.

To be fair, the roster this year was their most complete roster. He can’t score goals for Matthews in the playoffs.

 

[BoHorvat 53]

Wasted the prime years of Matthews and the rest of the core. Spent too much too soon and destroyed any chance of winning a cup.

I mean, they got to add a 2 time Hart Trophy finalist who had also received votes for Selke (Finished 8th a year before he became a UFA) without trading any assets - he also left money on the table. I think the majority of teams would've made that move - hell, I don't remember any Leafs fans talking shit about the deal at the time he signed.

The Marleau one though was an egregiously bad move, but that's about it for really bad moves. And that more so falls under the scope of the GM.

 

[Mr grumpy]

So shanny is OUT

 

[tarheelhockey]

To be fair, they did follow through on giving the Isles permission to negotiate.

 

[NVious]

Wasted the prime years of Matthews and the rest of the core. Spent too much too soon and destroyed any chance of winning a cup.

Shanahan got hypnotized thinking Matthews was Yzerman, let's say he was even though Yzerman had better playoff stats than Matthews BEFORE he won the cup.

Who is Lidstrom?
Who is Fedorov?
Who is Shanahan (on the team)?

Total bone head who let the inmates run the asylumn, inexperienced GM (Dubas), inexperienced coach (Keefe) who let the players treat the team/organization as if they had won cups. He basically made every bad decision you could make and refused to correct any of it. The mishandling of the core culminated in getting nothing for Marner by not trading him last year. As a president he was everything he wasn't as a player, extremely soft, stupid and unwilling to adapt.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

What is wrong with this league

How desperate do you have to be to be after Shanahan today

10 years ago I get it, today just pure desperation

I don’t think so.

He built a good core and made them competitive. His fatal flaw was hanging onto that top four group for too long and it’s right that he got fired. But it wasn’t all bad.

I can’t believe the Islanders are looking at Marc Bergevin. He was a train wreck. I’d take Shanahan over him in a heartbeat.

 

[boredmale]

I don’t think so.

He built a good core and made them competitive. His fatal flaw was hanging onto that top four group for too long and it’s right that he got fired. But it wasn’t all bad.

I can’t believe the Islanders are looking at Marc Bergevin. He was a train wreck. I’d take Shanahan over him in a heartbeat.

From my understanding Islanders are looking for a GM and want to hire Shanahan(I assume for President). Word is Darche is the favorite for GM

 

[5 Minute Major]

You guys bashing Shanahan are funny. Talking like he is a horrible GM. It’s almost like he didn’t build one of the most talented rosters in the league. They just lost in 7, with their backup goalie, to the defending Cup champs. They didn’t lose to the Tallahassee Warthogs.

 

[Oliewud]

What is wrong with this league

How desperate do you have to be to be after Shanahan today

10 years ago I get it, today just pure desperation

he built a great team

u can bring a horse to water but u cant make him drink

his only fault was not changing the core but when ur generating billions in revenue you think the owners are gonna give u the green light to dismantle that? LOL

 

[miscs75]

From my understanding Islanders are looking for a GM and want to hire Shanahan(I assume for President). Word is Darche is the favorite for GM

If Shanahan comes in as POHO with Darche as GM. They can start to build out the rest of the front office. Pridham can also get interviewed and go from there. Pridham is only allowed to interview for promotional positions apparently since they don’t want to lose him as an AGM somewhere else.

 

[Jumptheshark]

so he is out--time to change the title

 

[2ndGenIslander]

It's literally his fault. Not only did he enable that culture, but when Dubas finally decided enough was enough, he fired him because he didn't want to break up the core four and admit his "Shanaplan" was a total failure.

I personally believe the current leafs team in any other city and environment would be pretty successful but I guess it’s a matter of opinion

 

[miscs75]

I personally believe the current leafs team in any other city and environment would be pretty successful but I guess it’s a matter of opinion

The outside noise for that team creates a feeling of disappointment from the start. Might be the most toxic environment in all of sports for a team.

 

[John Mandalorian]

You guys bashing Shanahan are funny. Talking like he is a horrible GM. It’s almost like he didn’t build one of the most talented rosters in the league. They just lost in 7, with their backup goalie, to the defending Cup champs. They didn’t lose to the Tallahassee Warthogs.

...or the Vestal Warthogs.

 

[The Panther]

I’ll never get how guys can fail horrifically at their jobs in this league and just go somewhere else. Front offices care way too much about what guys did on the ice. This is insane

Agree. It's getting ridiculous (though it's been ridiculous for a very long time).

Shanahan has a checkered history, which includes being part of Team Canada that threw the medal into the garbage because of the "Punch-Up at Piestany", stealing a teammate's wife in St. Louis (and later being vetoed from joining the Rangers by Gretzky as a result), working on 'player safety' at a time of endless head injuries, and running the Leafs' talented core into the dirt with endless playoff failures.

I would think the Islanders would want someone more fit for the mid-21st century, not a 1980s' dinosaur like Shanahan, but then again I would also think the LA Kngs would not want a 97-year-old GM who had already retired... but such is life in the 'National Old-Boys' League".

 

[periferal]

Well, they tried going the experienced route and that clearly failed. Trying someone with less experience but a lot of motivation surely wouldn’t hurt any team.

In my opinion the problem is the nepotism in the league. You can get any job you want, despite bad results, if you just know the right person.

Well it's a worldwide problem in every single aspect of life, and I'm about to prove you 1000% correct...

 

[spiny norman]

so he is out--time to change the title

updated the title

 

[NVious]

You guys bashing Shanahan are funny. Talking like he is a horrible GM. It’s almost like he didn’t build one of the most talented rosters in the league. They just lost in 7, with their backup goalie, to the defending Cup champs. They didn’t lose to the Tallahassee Warthogs.

He lucked into drafting great players, then made every abysmal decision he could've made.

 

[Kranix]

Agree. It's getting ridiculous (though it's been ridiculous for a very long time).

Shanahan has a checkered history, which includes being part of Team Canada that threw the medal into the garbage because of the "Punch-Up at Piestany", stealing a teammate's wife in St. Louis (and later being vetoed from joining the Rangers by Gretzky as a result), working on 'player safety' at a time of endless head injuries, and running the Leafs' talented core into the dirt with endless playoff failures.

I would think the Islanders would want someone more fit for the mid-21st century, not a 1980s' dinosaur like Shanahan, but then again I would also think the LA Kngs would not want a 97-year-old GM who had already retired... but such is life in the 'National Old-Boys' League".

His plan in Toronto seemed to begin with him stating the fans would have to put up with a painful rebuild, but then he brings in Lamoriello, who was never going to do that, and who immediately starts bringing in aging veterans like Marleau. Then Shanahan pivots to his boy wonder Dubas, whose tenure was futility from start to finish. The amazon series revealed total disfunction, and Shanahan's contribution was poking his head into Dubas' office once in a while, sitting in on those pathetic team leadership meetings, and saying failure is not an option.

 

[The Shadow]

Shanahan’s failure was hiring Dubas. Dubas doesn’t know how to build a winner.

Now here we are with limited draft picks and little to zero bonafide prospects coming up.

 

[FunkySeeFunkyDo]

I would love to see Shanny back as head of DOPS.