Toronto Maple Leafs: 1st Big Mistake of Shanahan Era

The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Patrick Marleau this summer.  It was the first big mistake of the Shanahan Era.

Marleau was the Toronto Maple leafs signature move of the summer so far.  But I don’t like it. Most fans seem to, and that’s fair.  At first, I did too. I was just excited they did something July 1st, and pretty happy that they brought in a hall of famer.  But the more I thought about it, the less I liked about the signing.  The following is my reasoning for not being as excited as everyone else seems to be.

1) Leadership Is a Dumb Reason to Hire Someone

I already know exactly what the comments will say about that headline, so please, don’t bother!  The fact is, the argument for leadership in the NHL is a spurious one, at best.  Teams use it as a catch-all excuse for failure, or making a move.  Fans argue about it without really ever being able to know one way or the other.

The thinking goes that you can’t win with a young team unless there is an old guy around to guide the players.  I certainly think leadership is important, but it’s not just automatically imparted with age.

Listen to Morgan Rielly talk for five minutes – he’s charismatic, well spoken and smart. It’s obvious he’s a leader.  Since he’s been the best player on every team he’s ever been on, up to making the NHL, this is no surprise.

But he’s only 22.  Marleau may be a good leader, but he’s actually a guy who was stripped of his captaincy and had his effort questioned about one million times.  Just because he’s older than everyone doesn’t mean he’ll provide leadership.  He might, but what if he just comes onto the team and it’s awkward now because young players who were developing leadership roles now feel the need to back off and defer to the old guy?

Seems to me both things have an equal chance of occurring.  It is my experience that leaders and leadership occur naturally, and that trying to anoint a leader, or shoehorn one into an existing group, never works.