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Shanahan's Plan to Restore Respectability

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Is Toronto's reputation across the NHL better or worse than it was before Shanahan was hired?

  • Better

    Votes: 78 49.4%

  • Worse

    Votes: 80 50.6%
  • Total voters
    158
I also want to know from everyone what defines respect? NHLPA? Other GMs? Outside media? Outside fan base? Internal media or fan base? Etc

Leafs will need to win infinity cups in a row to ever get all of the above
 
I think it's worse now.

They over achieved back in the days of Tyler Bozak as their 1C. Kessel and company provided us with some entertainment, but nobody considered them to be a contender. And, quite certainly, nobody pretended they were a contender.

Fast forward to today's Leafs and it's just the opposite. We were promised results via the Shanaplan, we paid through the nose to get the best coach, Lou came in and controlled the media- who were actually positive for two seasons, and we were gifted our franchise saviour in Auston Matthews.

The media kept reminding us how "this time it's different". We were actually building with youth, from within our own organization. We were chock full of promising young stars and potential. We even accepted the promised "5 years of pain" because we'd been convinced it would lead to great things. We all bought into the process because we were tired of bandaid solutions and we all wanted to build a true contender.

Then, out of the blue, Shanahan handed the keys to Dubas. He blew $11 million on a centre we didn't need and signed players to ridiculous, undeserved, and unmanageable contracts. He put us in such a terrible cap situation that he returned to bandaid solutions in his quest to find players who could actually perform in the playoffs, all whilst trading away all of our future draft picks and prospects. All of this in exchange for winning only one playoff series during his 5 year run. He may be fine now, but the damage he did still affects the team today.

Shanahan making Dubas the GM was the beginning of the end- it's been quite embarrassing since then. I have no idea how Shanahan hasn't been fired.
 
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Which is worse - a team of mediocre players that overachieves or a team with some excellent players that underachieves?
 
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He's time here was a clown show.

Thankfully it is almost over.
 
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HamiltonNHL said:
View attachment 913033

He's time here was a clown show.

Thankfully it is almost over.
Click to expand...
In a city that LOVES their scapegoats, I'm genuinely surprised that it took this long for the popular narrative to turn against Shanahan. Feels far too late in the process - he really should have had so much more heat on him.

Perhaps because he's barely visible, most simply ignored his role in this disaster?
 
Tak7 said:
In a city that LOVES their scapegoats, I'm genuinely surprised that it took this long for the popular narrative to turn against Shanahan. Feels far too late in the process - he really should have had so much more heat on him.

Perhaps because he's barely visible, most simply ignored his role in this disaster?
Click to expand...

It is because the organization cares about money and little else (including stanley cups). The money continues to roll in. Their main concern is they appear as if they care about winning, not actually winning. Big business in Toronto "treats" their employees with a few tickets here and there and people lap it up. Normal fans can't afford to hold season tickets.

He kisses that asses of the board and they keep him because they don't want to feel bad for firing him. I sit on a small board. If the board sucks and they usually do, then their products suck.

MLSE has a Loser power hierarchy, in loser league, in which we are a Loser org. Professional hockey as done by the NHL sucks. The system only benefits owners (90%) and players (10%). Fans get shafted.

Now that Rogers flat out owns the Leafs, expect worse a more dysfunctional board, worsening upper management and worse on ice results.

The thing that grinds me is that hockey is the league that would "tolerate" a softer cap better than any professional sports league (maybe other than baseball). And yet this hard cap is designed to protect the league and screw teams with huge fan bases.

I might start watching the Swedish Hockey League. Is it any good ? Anyone ?
 
Last edited:
HamiltonNHL said:
It is because the organization cares about money and little else (including stanley cups). The money continues to roll in. Their main concern is they appear as if they care about winning, not actually winning. Big business in Toronto "treats" their employees with a few tickets here and there and people lap it up. Normal fans can't afford to hold season tickets.

He kisses that asses of the board and they keep him because they don't want to feel bad for firing him. I sit on a small board. If the board sucks and they usually do, then their products suck.

MLSE has a Loser power hierarchy, in loser league, in which we are a Loser org. Professional hockey as done by the NHL sucks. The system only benefits owners (90%) and players (10%). Fans get shafted.

Now that Rogers flat out owns the Leafs, expect worse a more dysfunctional board, worsening upper management and worse on ice results.

The thing that grinds me is that hockey is the league that would "tolerate" a softer cap better than any professional sports league (maybe other than baseball). And yet this hard cap is designed to protect the league and screw teams with huge fan bases.

I might start watching the Swedish Hockey League. Is it any good ? Anyone ?
Click to expand...
Are you replying to the right person?

None of this comes remotely close to explaining why the public narrative has turned against
Shanahan until recently, and even then it's been tame.
 
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Tak7 said:
Perhaps because he's barely visible, most simply ignored his role in this disaster?
Click to expand...

The barely visible helps.

The public tide turned from him when it was clear he didn't care and spent most of his time in New York.
 
Tak7 said:
It really didn't though - a few people got hot and bothered by the fact that he wasn't living here, but most people just shrugged their shoulders and overlooked it.
Click to expand...
He’s a dead man walking.

Pelley won’t extend him
 
HamiltonNHL said:
He’s a dead man walking.

Pelley won’t extend him
Click to expand...
A "dead man walking" is only a "dead man walking" if he's powerless to make any decisions that could impact the future of the organization.

While I agree it's very likely he doesn't return next year, it still seems as though he retains a fair bit of power within.
 
Our rep before Shanny was that we couldn’t make playoffs, had no talent, overpaid players that aren’t even stars. Play with mostly just grit and toughness but not enough skill. Had players in roles that was never expected with them in the beginning like Kessel being the face of a franchise when that’s not what he’s about or Phaneuf being a captain and number 1 defenceman. Our rep now is we can’t win in playoffs, have talent that is still is overpaid, have skill but soft as butter.

You would think playoffs would be mean better rep but sometimes being a disappointment and under performing can be worse. I do think the “this team is soft” has gotten overblown in recent years and just mostly hangs on reputation on some players. The league entirely has been getting a rep of being softer every year. I do think some players have gotten better and developed better with the being soft physicality/mentally issue though one certain player has been stagnant on that since he entered the league…

In my opinion, I’d say our rep is worse. Sometimes it’s better to be the butt end of jokes when it’s expected then being a joke when it shouldn’t be. It has drawn more attention to us when we already get enough attention.
 
The Shanaplan: To build a perennial cup contending team through a combination of smart drafting, low risk trades, and eschewing of expensive free agents.

I think it's safe to say they've lost sight of the plan. Unless it involves signing a lot of bad players to bad contracts. In fact we should probably stop debating whether management has the "right" plan altogether.

Just start debating whether they have any plan at all anymore.

They’ve shown an inability to identify quality pro players. So it doesn’t matter what their grand master plan is anyway. They're doomed to failure.

They already shot themselves in the foot botching the blueline rebuild.

Targeting junk over the hill defensemen. Then doubled down and shot themselves in the other foot by signing those same guys to long term contracts. If this is what the plan was the whole time then we've been discussing the wrong topic.

The only thing worth debating now is how stupid Shanahan is.
 
  • Wow
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