If you were GM of the Leafs?

[Commish]

I realize that many in this particular league are not fans of the Leafs, but I though it would be interesting to get everyones opinion on what the team needs to do in order to get back to respectability and become a team that will contend for the cup.

Now that John Ferguson has been let go and the team from every indication is headed in a direction that will give total autonomy to the new General Manager coming in, whoever that may be.....although I suspect the team will go very hard at Brian Burke in the off season.

Anyhow, the team really needs to start a strong rebuilding process that may take years of missing the playoffs in order to stockpile those young prospects that every team needs in order to build a contender. The Leafs have for as long as I can remember been a team that cares about nothing else then the bottom line and has done everyone in their power to simply make the playoffs on an annual basis. Every thing seems to indicate that the team now wants to head in a different direction and become a builder instead of a buyer of overpaid players.

In my opinion the Leafs need to do the following things between now and the start of next season in order to start this rebuilding process.

1) Cliff Fletcher must do everything he can in order to convince Mats Sundin to waive his no trade clause, so that the team can move him in return for some picks, prospects, young players, etc...
2) They need to rid themselves of all the stupid contracts that are handcuffing this team which may mean putting players on waivers, buying them out, sending them to the farm, or attempting to move them via trade. These players include guys like Kubina, McCabe, Tucker, Raycroft and possibly even Jason Blake although I think that the Blake can still be a valuable player to this team.
2) They need to bring in a scouting staff that will has a handle on who the good prospects are in order to start a better drafting program.
3) The leafs have far to many of the same type of depth players. They need to start becoming a team that others around the league hate to play against. An in your face, no quit team that is willing to dish out a hit or two.
4) The franchise itself needs to start focusing less on the bottom line and more on the fans.
5) Obviously, these are just the beginning steps which need to be undertaken in order to become a contender and the fact is that the team may need to miss the playoffs for a few more years to come in order to return to respectability.....we'lll see if they can pull it off.

Anyhow, I would love to hear your voice on what the team needs in order to compete with the rest of the big boys..........even if you can't stand them.

[Vampyre]

A lot of what you said is the same stuff I've been reading for weeks.

With the Leafs history though, I'll believe it when I see it happen.

I don't agree that their scouting is a problem....they have found many good players in recent years, such as Boyes, Rask, Strahlman, etc (they even identified Brunnstrom early on, but management ignored them)....the problem is that management either sells off their good young prospects for crap or they move all of their top picks (for crap).

I think that they do need to dump the 3rd/4th line scrubs and bring up the farm to give them a good taste of the nhl at this point.....plus, as a bonus, if they lose a few more, they get a lottery selection.

[Commish]

The Leafs do indeed have some good player scouts in the organizations and have done a good job of upgrading that area since the lockout. However, Craig Button was largely responsible to scouting and giving recommendations on those players and he is not longer with the franchise because of they are so disfunctional. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, it was Button and Thommie Bergman who first discovered Brunnstrom more then a year ago. Unfortunately, Leafs management failed to listen to the two of them at that time.......such is the Leafs.

Is it possible to love and hate something at the same time?

[Vampyre]

I thought Button and Bergman were still with the scouting department?

[Deleted]

If I were GM of the leafs...I would Quit!!!!

[Oil kings GM]

Mike, it seems that the Leafs are in the same predicament as the Oilers. Here is Lowe offering an offer sheet to Vanek for $7+M/yr and then that fails he offers Penner to a $4+M/yr offer sheet. In signing Penner Lowe gives up their 1st, 2nd and 3rd in a very deep draft (2008).

What the catch is is that Lowe said at the time that the team was re-tooling for a play-off birth before the season starts. And when December rolls around and the Oilers are pretty much at the bottom of the league and Brian Burke looks like a genius by saying that "the Ducks will let Penner walk to get a top 5 pick from the Oilers." and even takes it one step further and saying "Lowe is running the Oilers into the sewer". Now Kevin Lowe turns around and tell the media, fans and the hockey club that they are in a rebuild mode. Well hello Kevin freaking Lowe...if your team is in a rebuild mode, you don't basically give away a 1st round pick. And you don't bring in guys like Souray, Tarnstrom and Sanderson if you are in a rebuild mode.

So yes I feel your pain (if that is it) with the Leafs, as being an Oiler fan it is very frustrating when you have a gm that is to egotistical and doesn't know what he is doing to save his life.

[Vampyre]

The one difference being that the Oilers actually have young talent on their club.

[major]

Take the hit, Waive or trade the following for next to nothing.

Tucker, Kubina Gill, Raycroft, bell, blake.

Shop mats, mccabe, kaberle for best available package.

Mats to Calgary for Lombardi, Irving, Giordano, 1st or close to it
Kaberle to SJ for Carle, Pavelski, 1st or close to it
McCabe to Colorado for Liles 1st or close to it

Forwards: Stajan, wellwood, Steen, Ponik, Antropov, Lombardi, Pavelski, Tlutsy, Kilger, Devereux, couple other fillers.

Defense: Cola, Liles, Carle, White, Starlman, Giordano, Kronwall.

Goalies: Toskala, Pogge, let them both play, winner takes the starting spot.

They will lose a ton for next couple of years, draft well, keep you draftees, sign Bunstrom.

Dont let Peddie and above mingle with hockey operations and let the GM do his job.

In 3 years Laughs wont be laughable anymore.

[Hitmen GM]

I would be surprised to see Calgary go after Sundin, scoring isn't their problem. A puck-moving defenceman would be much higher on the list for Sutter, at least I would guess

[major]

rockets said:

I would be surprised to see Calgary go after Sundin, scoring isn't their problem. A puck-moving defenceman would be much higher on the list for Sutter, at least I would guess

scoring is definately a problem. Shut down Iggy/Juice/Langkow line and we hit hard times.

Imagine Tanguay with Sundin, how much room it would give the Iggy line, not to mention Tanguay thriving again with a real center like he had in colorado with Foppa and Sakic.

I think we need a defensive shut-down dman more than a puck-moving dman. A guy like Foote would look good with Warrener.

Dion/Aucion
Regher/Sarich
Foote/Warrener
Erikson

my 3 cents

3 of those can move the puck above average in dion, aucoin, erikson.

[Hitmen GM]

You really want to put Foote together with Warrener? Warrener is slow enough already, I can't see him and Foote being a great combo.

The guy I would rather see the Flames go after is Campbell out of Buffalo. They seem to have reached a contract impasse and might consider moving him as a rental. Perfect fit with Regehr in my opinion, but I doubt it happens.

While I do realize that the Flames do rely pretty heavily on whatever line Iginla is on, they are still ranked 8th in the league in goals scored. With that in mind, throwing a huge package together for Mats Sundin doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. But then again, I have little-to-no experience as an NHL GM, so I could be way off on this

[helionsgm]

Kaberle needs to stay... clean house except Kaberle. Take edmonton as an example it's alot harder to re-build d then offence... Keep Kaberle as your #1 and build from there... Then the offence could easily be built around Steen, Stajan, and guys like that... (IMO trade Wellwood he's a hack) If they want don't wanna be down and out for too long then don't completely clean house... keep a core and trade for youth then when their youth come into their own... buy some defence... Just make sure your core isn't too old to keep up once the youth gets there!

[lvgm]

I would drive my truck into a wall. I would stick shards of glass in my dick and smash it with a hammer. I would play russian roulette until I lost. I would..............................................you get the idea.

I HATE NO TEAM IN ALL OF SPORTS MORE THAN I HATE THE LEAFS

[Vampyre]

It's too cliche to hate a team that is so far down and out.

[vancouverhotheads]

not when you've hated them as long as you can remember!