The Out of Town Thread CVIII - Free Agency Edition

[NobleSix]

First, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

Second, is it likely a short-term gig for LL to mentor Dubas, who will eventually take the reins?

Third, what a complete overhaul the Leafs management has performed this offseason. It's really hard to find any fault with what they've done from the coaching & managerial perspective. Their days of complete incompetence at those positions appear to be finished, and one would expect that after an appropriate period of rebuilding the team, the on-ice product will come around and the Leafs will no longer be such a joke.

I agree that they've hired some competent people, but weren't Burke, Carlyle, and Wilson also respective and competent hires at the time? I remember a great number of Leaf fans reacting the same way to those hires, no?

 

[Tabarouette]

 

[Kents polished head]

My first thought is Shanahan said they wanted a GM that would meld well with the other executives and coach and to compliment the front office. So they hire one of the last few guys who's a loan wolf and always does things HIS way.

For the hell of it:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-p...-he-laughed-at-fired-employees-221554405.html

“Lamoriello physically positioned himself in a chair at the base of the employee elevator of the arena so that he could watch these individuals pass by with their boxes of personal belongings in order to leave the building directly after they were fired and to laugh as they passed by, as to take credit for their firing,†the lawsuit adds.


This should be fun to watch

More overrated executive in hockey ever. This guy destroyed Malakhov's and Mogilny's careers. Tried to **** with the league with the ridiculous Kovalchuk contract. Never liked him. Never understood the hype. All he did in the 21st century is lose key players.

 

[prairie hab]

Shanahan will be Lou's b***h in no time. This will be epic....

 

[Richiebottles]

Career wise I think it is a good move for him.

More money too.

 

[Ezpz]

More overrated executive in hockey ever. This guy destroyed Malakhov's and Mogilny's careers. Tried to **** with the league with the ridiculous Kovalchuk contract. Never liked him. Never understood the hype. All he did in the 21st century is lose key players.

To be fair, New Jersey is the least desirable place to live in the entire developed world.

 

[Sterling Archer]

To be fair, New Jersey is the least desirable place to live in the entire developed world.

Some parts are like hell on earth. Other parts are ridiculously amazing. Doubt NHL players live in the crappy areas and NYC is a 45 min bridge away.

 

[CHarlie]

Didn't Lou draft Shanny.................here we go with the old boys club....lmfao

 

[Sterling Archer]

John Shannon ‏@JSportsnet 25m25 minutes ago
With Shanahan,Babcock,Lamoriello on board...Nonis & Carlyle still under contract,TML might have close to $20 million in management salaries

SWEEEEET!! Leafs love throwing away money. Don't care personally but goes to show that they have no trouble trying to buy their way out of problems and as such, will likely get themselves into more trouble.

 

[DenverHabsFan]

To be fair, New Jersey is the least desirable place to live in the entire developed world.

Not even close. I lived there for 10 years. Mild winters, beaches, money, NYC, more sports teams than any other city, concerts, amazing scenery, mountains, lakes, beautiful lush neighborhoods.

NJ is not Newark or Jersey City. It's beautiful. It's called the Garden State. Toronto is flat and boring and everything is closed by 8 pm.

Other than that, your statement is accurate.

 

[Adriatic]

To be fair, New Jersey is the least desirable place to live in the entire developed world.

Whaaa?? You're malade or you really haven't been to New Jersey. It is a great place to live actually with beautiful neighborhoods. People are so clueless, New Jersey is more than just Meadowlands and Newark man. It's really a great state to live and beats Quebec on all possible levels. Better weather, ocean coastline, beaches, proximity to NYC and pretty much everything one could possibly need, milder winters, I could go on forever.

 

[Treb]

To be fair, New Jersey is the least desirable place to live in the entire developed world.

Even just in hockey cities, Detroit is worse. You have no idea what you're talking about.

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

If nothing else at this moment it's a big statement move by their organization. It's a weird chemistry experiment and it could all blow up before long but it does send the message that the team wants to break the mold. I can't help but think back to 03 when we got Gainey on board as GM. That was the consolidation of a big culture shift for us that finally broke the perennial loser mid to late nineties mentality that we had acquired.

 

[RealityBytes]

John Shannon ‏@JSportsnet 25m25 minutes ago
With Shanahan,Babcock,Lamoriello on board...Nonis & Carlyle still under contract,TML might have close to $20 million in management salaries

SWEEEEET!! Leafs love throwing away money. Don't care personally but goes to show that they have no trouble trying to buy their way out of problems and as such, will likely get themselves into more trouble.

Yeah, and don't forget the $5.3M for Nathan Horton, but they are by far the richest and have tons of money. $20M is just a drop in the bucket for them.

I saw this on the Leafs board:

Shanny - "The Boss" - master of the plan, the final say starts and ends with him
Lou - "The Teacher", and the guy who will make sure 1st round picks are not lottery protected
Dubas - "The Student" - smart, innovative, GM in Training
Hunter - "The Scout" - being paid tons of money to do what he loves most - he just finds talent, period.
Pridham - "The Money Man" - the Clarkson trade says it all - it's a new cap world, and the Leafs are in great shape with this guy
Babcock - "The Executor" - he will provide input on the types of players and styles he wants

Add to this and what they spent and added as development and training coaches to the Marlies, the best European scouts, and are grabbing and paying high for every up and comer.

Looks like the Leafs mean serious business and are building an organization with buying the best around at all positions. There are just too many good ones to get themselves into trouble like they did in the past.

Maybe just spending leftover cash from the Buffalo Bills bid. Must be nice to have too much money.

 

[DenverHabsFan]

Lou is continuing his tradition of forfeiting picks already.

 

[Tabarouette]

 

[Sterling Archer]

Yeah, and don't forget the $5.3M for Nathan Horton, but they are by far the richest and have tons of money. $20M is just a drop in the bucket for them.

I saw this on the Leafs board:

Shanny - "The Boss" - master of the plan, the final say starts and ends with him
Lou - "The Teacher", and the guy who will make sure 1st round picks are not lottery protected
Dubas - "The Student" - smart, innovative, GM in Training
Hunter - "The Scout" - being paid tons of money to do what he loves most - he just finds talent, period.
Pridham - "The Money Man" - the Clarkson trade says it all - it's a new cap world, and the Leafs are in great shape with this guy
Babcock - "The Executor" - he will provide input on the types of players and styles he wants

Add to this and what they spent and added as development and training coaches to the Marlies, the best European scouts, and are grabbing and paying high for every up and comer.

Looks like the Leafs mean serious business and are building an organization with buying the best around at all positions. There are just too many good ones to get themselves into trouble like they did in the past.

Maybe just spending leftover cash from the Buffalo Bills bid. Must be nice to have too much money.

Reminiscent of the Rangers buying the "best" players at all positions. Worked out great for them

 

[Leon Lucius Black]

So much for the Leafs rebuilding properly, I love this. Lamoriello was great like 10 years ago but he's been awful lately, the Devils have had zero identity in recent years and just make the most random signings.

 

[hototogisu]

Yeah, and don't forget the $5.3M for Nathan Horton, but they are by far the richest and have tons of money. $20M is just a drop in the bucket for them.

I saw this on the Leafs board:

Shanny - "The Boss" - master of the plan, the final say starts and ends with him
Lou - "The Teacher", and the guy who will make sure 1st round picks are not lottery protected
Dubas - "The Student" - smart, innovative, GM in Training
Hunter - "The Scout" - being paid tons of money to do what he loves most - he just finds talent, period.
Pridham - "The Money Man" - the Clarkson trade says it all - it's a new cap world, and the Leafs are in great shape with this guy
Babcock - "The Executor" - he will provide input on the types of players and styles he wants

Add to this and what they spent and added as development and training coaches to the Marlies, the best European scouts, and are grabbing and paying high for every up and comer.

Looks like the Leafs mean serious business and are building an organization with buying the best around at all positions. There are just too many good ones to get themselves into trouble like they did in the past.

Maybe just spending leftover cash from the Buffalo Bills bid. Must be nice to have too much money.

I mean it's cool and all but, you know, teams have built successes and won Cups with like a fraction of the personnel and the budget the Leafs are using here. I get that money is no object for MLSE but I sure hope an investment of that magnitude produces some tangible results...

Also I like how all the credit for the Horton/Clarkson swap was dumped on Nonis at the time and now that he's gone it's quickly been shifted to someone who remains in the organization...

 

[Sterling Archer]

So much for the Leafs rebuilding properly, I love this. Lamoriello was great like 10 years ago but he's been awful lately, the Devils have had zero identity in recent years and just make the most random signings.

It's a perfect marriage. That's exactly what the Leafs have been doing for the last few decades.

 

[BLONG7]

How old is Lou? Man, he will be in diapers by the time the Leafs make da playoffs!! Strange, very strange...

If LeBabs is making 6.25M does that mean Lou is making 7.0M? What a crew...

 

[LaP]

How old is Lou? Man, he will be in diapers by the time the Leafs make da playoffs!! Strange, very strange...

If LeBabs is making 6.25M does that mean Lou is making 7.0M? What a crew...

He is past 70 i think.

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

How old is Lou? Man, he will be in diapers by the time the Leafs make da playoffs!! Strange, very strange...

If LeBabs is making 6.25M does that mean Lou is making 7.0M? What a crew...

Sweet Lou is in his early 70's so yeah, not the youngest guy around. Most people on local radio are under the impression that it'll probably be a short association, 2-3 years max deal. A lot of journalist here expect he'll mostly be an interim mentor type like Fletcher was when he briefly came back. Personally I'm not too sure about that, Lou is a notorious hard ass, curmudgeon old grump, I don't see him ever going down easily or taking a back seat. He's used to being in complete control of everything for the last 20 plus years.

 

[DenverHabsFan]

Having Lou in Toronto might give us another chance to hire Babcock. He's notoriously impatient with coaches. Hopefully, next time around, MB wakes up and fires MT.

 

[DJ Breadman]

This is great news, I was worried the leafs were making some good moves this offseason