| Jonathan Volpe. 14th January, 2008 - 5:42 pm
 What a disaster!
In the midst of a five game losing streak, the Toronto Maple Leafs have gone from a team that seemed to be turning it around to a team that is third last in the NHL.
The Toronto media have Maple Leaf Sporting Entertainment (MLSE) calling for John Ferguson Junior’s head and that trading Captain Mats Sundin is only a matter of time.
Before the Leafs trade Sundin and decide to “blow the team up,” MLSE must fire Ferguson and find a legitimate replacement.
As GM Ferguson was a rookie, and it showed. He made disastrous trades and signings and has left the next Leafs' GM in a terrible position.
The GM that succeeds Ferguson must be one with years of experience, confidence, and patience because it will be a daunting task to overhaul a team that is littered with mistakes.
The first major task will be trading away the face of the Franchise in Mats Sundin. It will be hard to see Sundin go, but the Leafs can ill-afford another trade go wrong and it has happened before. (See: Brad Boyes, the guy with 25 goals in St. Louis).
Another difficult task will be figuring out how to free up valuable cap space that has been tied up with the signings of Pavel Kubina, Bryan McCabe, Hal Gill, Andrew Raycroft, and Darcy Tucker. So rebuilding will be a longer than usual process as teams will not be interested in guys who are overpaid which is why “blowing this team up” will be nearly impossible.
Very few teams will be interested in the pylon tandem of Kubina and Gill or the seven million dollar man in McCabe. And trading Raycroft will be virtually impossible as his goals-against average has risen to just over four.
Good luck to the next Leaf GM; you will have your work cut out for you. |
