The Toronto Maple Leafs have not made it to the Stanley Cup finals since the NHL expanded beyond six teams.
The year the NHL expanded, and among the first wave of teams, the only one without a Stanley Cup win was the St. Louis Blues, who you might remember, won the Cup two months ago.
This leaves the Toronto Maple Leafs last among duds. The longest streak of non-winning in the history of the NHL.
But times have changed. Almost miraculously, a billion dollar corporation has somehow seen it’s most valuable asset taken over by a 32 year-old rookie and turned into the most cutting-edge, progressive team in the NHL.
I probably don’t need to mention that that is almost never how these things go.
The billionaires who own the Leafs did the typical hockey thing – they handed over control of their franchise to an ex-player hockey-lifer. That is how these things go.
What they probably didn’t expect was that he would turn out to be one of the most open minded, risk taking, thoughtful people to ever run a hockey team. Brendan Shananah is the best thing to ever happen to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Maybe he’s just the Toronto equivalent of water after wandering thirsty in the desert for three days, but I really think it’s true anyways.
Brendan Shanahan and the Toronto Maple Leafs
The thing that makes Brendan Shanahan different from every single executive the Leafs have previously hired, and virtually everyone in else running a hockey team is that he is open to new ideas.
If you could boil the problem facing every GM down to one thing, it would be this: The ingrained dogma of 50 + years of hockey tradition clouds their judgement.
Brendan Shanahan has shown his willingness to listen to and learn from others to be his biggest advantage over his peers.
When he first took over, it seemed insane that he was going to spend a year watching Dave Nonis and Randy Carlyle suck whatever remaining life was left out of the bloating carcass of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
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Those guys sucked, and everyone knew it. But Shanahan wanted first hand knowledge and he got it. He rolled that to his advantage by tearing the team down, getting lucky that it happened when he could grab Matthews and Marner, and the rest is history.
There are so many things you can say about Shanahan’s reign that have been great. He gave the then-current regime a chance, learned what he could. Then he hired a legend. Learned what he could. Simultaneously, he hired two up-and-coming stars of the NHL management circuit, but both had decidedly different ideas and skills.
Shanahan never jumped to any conclusions. He went slow, and he was methodical. He appears to have done his research and learned what he could.
Then he gave the reigns to Kyle Dubas – in itself a huge risk, due mostly to the optics of his age and the old-guard media hating everything he stands for. That this is the right decision is obvious after even a year. ( Dubas list of accomplishments includes being the only GM in this time frame to add a #1 C and 2 x #1 D to his roster).
Even if Dubas’ style and ideas scares you, Shanahan’s confidence in him should be enough for you – the guy hasn’t been wrong yet.
The Toronto Maple Leafs fans are currently enjoying the best time in 50 years to be a fan of the team. Winning requires a lot of luck, but Shanahan has put everyone in the position to do so.
Eventually, they’re going to have to give him a statue.