As playoff teams prepare for the start of the chase for Lord Stanley’s mug, the teams that missed out have already begun preparing for next year. Buffalo handed head coach Ted Nolan his walking papers (for a second time) and the Toronto Maple Leafs fired everyone.
Okay – not everyone, but outside of Brendan Shanahan and the people that he brought in when he arrived in The Big Smoke one year and two days ago, no one on the hockey operations side of things survived.
General manager Dave Nonis and a bunch of scouts? Gone.
Interim head coach Peter Horachek and his staff? Gone.
Toronto may be starting Year 2 of The Shanahan Regime, but this is the first time that the man running the show has only his people in place.
Nonis was a holdover, as was former coach Randy Carlyle – individuals that stuck around because cleaning house when you’re still getting your feet wet and have zero experience in a position is never a good idea. Carlyle went during the season when the team tuned him out and started losing. Horachek went following the final game because he was never going to stick around long term in the first place. Nonis joined him because the team he helped build during his time as Brian Burke’s right hand man and at the helm himself wasn’t good enough.
The draft is going to be crucial, which is why this housecleaning happened as swiftly as it did.
Shanahan brought in assistant general manager Kyle Dubas and director of player personal Mark Hunter when he arrived because the way they approach building a team and think about its construction. They’re sharing general manager duties for the time being, which will most likely include the draft.
Toronto has failed for nearly a decade following the same blueprint as always, but those plans have been thrown in the garbage and new ones are being drawn up right now.
The NHL Draft Lottery takes place on Saturday.
Buffalo has a 20 percent chance at securing the top pick, but can’t fall any lower than second, so they’re getting a potential franchise player either way. Toronto, who finished with the fourth-worst record in the league, has a 9.5 percent chance of moving up to No. 1 and selecting Connor McDavid, the standout center from the Erie Otters who is the consensus first-overall pick in the June draft.
This is a tremendous year for the rebuilding process to begin in earnest because barring a bunch of craziness in the lottery, Toronto is going to add an potential All-Star talent to the roster in June. While there have been several recent drafts where even the top few picks weren’t sure things, the current crop of draft eligible players is as solid a group as we’ve seen in years, which will make it harder for Toronto to swing and miss with their first selection.
That happened far too much in recent years and it needs to stop under Shanahan. Winning is hard enough; it’s even harder when your team constantly whiffs on first-round picks and the draft in general. The player purge will happen this summer. Save for a few quality young talents (Morgan Rielly, JVR, William Nylander, Jake Gardiner) everyone is probably available for the right price.
Be warned, the next few years of Toronto Maple Leafs hockey aren’t going to be pretty, but they’re going to be pivotal. Selecting a new coach will be too.
Mike Babcock is widely regarded as the top choice, but there are no guarantees he doesn’t stay in Detroit. Shanahan is sure to make him an offer, but it all comes down to whether he’s looking for a greater challenge than the one he has in Hockeytown, where the Red Wings made the playoffs for the 23rd consecutive season and creeping closer to becoming Nik Kronwall and Gustav Nyquist’s team after several seasons under Hank Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk’s stewardship.
If Babcock declines, don’t be surprised if Toronto stays away from the recycling plant. A veteran coach with a bunch of miles on his odometer isn’t what this young franchise will need over the next few years. Instead, they should look at the minors and the lieutenants of some of the top bench bosses in the league.
This is what needed to happen. This is Day One of the Toronto Maple Leafs climb back to respectability.
