Shanahan's Plan to Restore Respectability

[Nineteen67]

Kyle only left Brad with the option of building through UFAs. The trade, drafting and developing options were fully destroyed by the previous GM.

Yes, but they could always start today. Don’t entertain the older UFAs and maybe look at few RFAs only, like Necas if he’s cheap enough. Good player with tons of speed.

 

[All Mod Cons]

Yes, but they could always start today. Don’t entertain the older UFAs and maybe look at few RFAs only, like Necas if he’s cheap enough. Good player with tons of speed.

A trade around Marner with Necas involved might be a decent idea.

 

[Nineteen67]

A trade around Marner with Necas involved might be a decent idea.

I would look at Carolina, but I don’t see them entertaining Marner’s salary demands.

 

[nuck]

Shanahan’s biggest blunder was thr “discounts” quote

Shanahan's biggest gaffe shows he's out of touch: revisiting the "Discounts" quote

‘This may not be for everyone’: Shanahan talks Maple Leafs and hometown discounts The Maple Leafs face the difficult task of keeping their soon-to-be high-priced band together, and team president Brendan Shanahan hinted at young stars making financial sacrifices KEN CAMPBELL OCT 4, 2018 The...

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Nah Shanny's biggest blunder had to be the Dubas promotion. That led to the bad contracts, the rookie coach and then the stubborn failure to ever deviate from the original plan that has the club in the current overpaid asset-poor vortex with nothing to show for it. The discounts comment was dumb and should have been made in private, if at all sure. But KD's lack of understanding about roster construction, player motivation, their agents, and an absence of spine dug them the hole they are in. All these years later they are finally looking at a desperate attempt to break up the core and get some value back which they should have done when Nylander held out for the first regular season game. Leave Lou in there for another year or two, even if he gets fired for Louing too much and there is no way he does the damage that Kyle left them with.

 

[Stringer Bell]

Don’t care. GTFO. We should’ve never allowed someone with zero experience to handle a team with so much potential.

Good job getting Matthews, anyone here could’ve tanked successfully.

Then you went out and hired a rookie GM and then let him hire his BFF, a rookie coach. f*** off.

It is crazy, when you think about it that way. A team like us should never ever hire first time coaches and GM’s. It’s inevitable that they’re going to have to basically, learn on the job…which leaves high risk of wasted years.

Crazy when you think about it that we actually did that. And the majority of us were for it at the time.

 

[notbias]

Kyle only left Brad with the option of building through UFAs. The trade, drafting and developing options were fully destroyed by the previous GM.

We finally have ELCs that can make the jump, what are you talking about?

Don't like the prospects? Trade them, they are still worth something.

Don't like the 1st paid for McCabe? Retain 50% again and trade him for a 1st+.

Robertson, Knies, Holmberg, Cowan, Minten, Niemela, Liljegren, Timmins, Woll, McMann, Greb... these guys all have value and are tradeable.

We can regain draft picks and people can stop complaining that we only have some NHL-ready prospects instead of magic beans.

 

[Confucius]

There are still so many holes to the basic structure of the team. Some have been saying for 8 yrs that you have to properly build a team through draft and development.
I hope they don’t use the cap space on older UFA players that are nearing the end, but I fear that’s what they’ll do.

Oh absolutely they will, Berube didn’t come here to start from scratch, Shanny is not taking a step back now they’re pot committed.

 

[DuklaNation]

There is no plan. Shanahan has to go. What does he even do everyday?

 

[Ianturnedbull]

I think leaf fans have to take a real hard look at their team. They keep pretending that the team is close and they are not.

Way too many things have to happen for things to turn around this season.

Also fans want Tavares/Marner to be moved (at least one of them).

So the shopping list is:

3 possibly 4 defensemen

1 starting goalie

1 Marner replacement

1 Tavares replacement

2-3 wingers

1 - 2 depth wingers

Let's be a little more grounded now.

 

[Maple Leaf]

There is no plan. Shanahan has to go. What does he even do everyday?

Collects a paycheck in Nyc
Orders bagels and
porterhouse steak

 

[QJo]

The trajectory changed with the Dubas hire. From the Babcock hire to the Matthews draft, the Lou hire, the legends Row and number retirements, last place to playoffs; all high profile events in the hockey world, all up and up.

The PR job of letting Dubas have our keys because he was getting buzz around the league and might get scooped up so giving Lou the "mutual non-contract renewel" (as I recall it) was a massive shift in mentality and optics. We went from all the big names coming our way to showing we were afraid to lose an unproven commodity and making taking chances on unknowns.

 

[MajorLeaf]

He's made positive changes considering how bad it was before.

BUT he's also now started implementing negative changes that have created a childish environment within the organization. They're stubborn and behave like the Arizona Coyotes or an organization that is satisfied with a playoff round.

No clue why he thinks it's okay to pamper a core and coach that has stunk it up as much as this one. It's bizarre. Don't forget he was also more than ready to bring back Dubas before the press conference.

Definitely better. 2005-2014 might have been darkest era in Leaf history, certainly in my lifetime at the very least.

While the current iteration of the team is frustrating as all hell, they're at least a good team, with potential to make noise in the playoffs. Those teams from 2005-2014 were a joke honestly, constantly trading futures just trying to sneak in the playoffs. Perpetually spinning their wheels going nowhere. They were bad but not bad enough to get top 5 picks generally. It was hell being a fan back then.

The darkest era of Maple Leafs history is 1972-1990 when Harold Ballard owned the team.

This was an owner that didn’t care about winning championships anymore since they won earlier and traded good players out of spite.

He didn’t even want to draft European players since he hated them and the only reason the Leafs got to draft Salming (from Sweden) because Ballard was in jail serving time when it happened.

Not to mention turning a blind eye to the ushers abusing boys or embezzlement of Leafs profits plus tax avoidance.

Yes, the 2005-2014 years were bleak but that was a child's play compared to 1972-1990.

As for Shanahan, he has made the organization more reapectible and the Leafs are the most valued franchise estimated $2.8 billion just above the NY Rangers $2.65 billion valuation.

The Leafs have some of the best staff, equipment and facilities in the entire NHL and players know they will be treated well if playing for this team.

That alone the franchise has gotten better.

 

[Craig Button]

Lol.

It’s Far better now then it’s was before.

I’d rather repeat the last 10 years with Shanny then the 10 years before

 

[Squiffy]

Better or worse? You can’t have watched the ten years before and seriously ask that question of the ten years after.

 

[Drytoast]

How do we stop the mentality of people looking to get paid like rockstars here for mediocrity?

 

[Squiffy]

How do we stop the mentality of people looking to get paid like rockstars here for mediocrity?

Fire Dubas?

 

[notbias]

Fire Dubas?

 

[Squiffy]

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Those are market extensions. Am and Mm at 11+ off Elc’s because you signed JT at 11 aren’t

 

[notDatsyuk]

We were a joke before and are moreso now - is that better or worse?

What did he do? Positives are he improved the infrastructure and behind the scenes. Negatives are he fired Lou too soon and gave Dubas control.

 

[613Leafer]

The last ~8 years have certainly been a disappointment relative to expectations.

But before Shanny, this franchise was a legit joke. They managed to avoid the playoffs for 8 of 9 years, while simultaneously avoid a top 4 pick the entire time. There was NOTHING to be excited for, unless you were a big fan of wishful thinking.

To be fair, I'm not sure if I attribute the turnaround to Shanny or Lieweke. I always liked the Lieweke interviews, and think he was a massive part of the Leafs turnaround, and I wonder what would have happened had he remained for the years for repeated failures.

 

[Leaf Fans]

How do we stop the mentality of people looking to get paid like rockstars here for mediocrity?

Stop paying them. They will then look elsewhere.

 

[RunItBackAgain]

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It’s pretty obvious the GM didn’t sign those contracts, nor the ones that preceded them, Shanahan did.

 

[centipede2233]

It is crazy, when you think about it that way. A team like us should never ever hire first time coaches and GM’s. It’s inevitable that they’re going to have to basically, learn on the job…which leaves high risk of wasted years.

Crazy when you think about it that we actually did that. And the majority of us were for it at the time.

The really crazy thing is dubas got a huge pay increase and promotion in Pittsburgh and keefe was hired the next day with an increase in pay. The NHL really is the no accountability league full of con artists

 

[thewave]

Anyone voting better get your head on straight lads. The GMs hate us for the overpays. Other teams hate us for the overpays. Not winning a single round with dramatic overpays makes us look like a joke. NuHockey soft hockey makes us look like a joke and we had to backtrack on it.

How the heck ya'll thinkings that we is in a better place in any way shape or form. Ya'll smoking cow paddies.

For real. We are basically authoring the book, how to turn solid gold into mud and people think we are in better shape. Looked on positively etc. No way.

 

[Confucius]

How do we stop the mentality of people looking to get paid like rockstars here for mediocrity?

As bizarre as this sounds, I think it all started when we had no stars and it seemed nobody wanted to play here and we really were doormats. I think mgmt started way overpaying guys to make headlines. People would start talking, wow they gave him a 20 million dollar contract. Then think, I don’t know much about that player but he must be great, yay us finally someone good is coming.