The Top 3 Outrageous Stories About the Toronto Maple Leafs President
The Toronto Maple Leafs were excited to sign Brendan Shanahan to be their president and alternate governor in 2014. They may not have known that they got a man with an outrageous past.
The Toronto Maple Leafs thought that they got the right person to run the organization when they poached Brendan Shanahan from the NHL offices. He was the league’s senior vice president of player safety before resigning to join the Leafs. Going to Toronto, he brought some bespoke suits and a handful of excellent stories.
While the Leafs have not gotten any playoff success under Shanahan, he has overseen a complete transformation of the organization from the dark days of the Burke/Nonis era. The Leafs are in a way better position today than they have been in decades, and that is largely because of Shanahan.
Today recount the top three outrageous stories from Shanahan’s playing days.
The Third Most Outrageous Story
This story teaches us that Shanahan can hold a grudge. It dates back all the way to the summer of 1983, four years before the Mimico, Ontario native was drafted second overall by the New Jersey Devils. It was recounted to Gary Bettman on his satellite radio show in 2009 by Shanny himself.
A 14-year-old Shanahan was in a Toronto rink when he was told that there was a celebrity in the building. As a young Maple Leafs fan, he was excited to discover that the captain of the team, Rick Vaive, wasn’t just skating on a different pad in the arena but was actually in the neighbouring dressing room.
Shanahan hustled over to meet the legendary player and request an autograph from him. “I didn’t get the best response from Rick Vaive at that time”, Shanahan said of the interaction he had with the captain. He was so miffed about the experience that he made sure to get even down the line.
That opportunity came when Shanahan joined the Devils as an 18-year-old NHL rookie. After a two-year stop with the Chicago Blackhawks, Vaive joined the Buffalo Sabres. When the Devils were in Buffalo, Shanahan lined for a face-off against his once hero, now nemesis.
Once the linesman dropped the puck, the rookie went after the veteran. Shanahan later reflected on his attack on the Prince Edward Island Sports Hall of Famer. “It was a quiet, uneventful game. [Vaive] couldn’t believe the rage I had, not only in attacking him, but it took two (linesmen) to restrain me afterwards and throw me in the penalty box.” Shanahan’s teammates knew about the past snubbing and had to explain to Vaive why he was targetted.
This wasn’t the last time these two men connected. Once retired, Vaive introduced his son to Shanahan when he was in Toronto. This meeting went much differently. Shanahan explained, “I signed the autograph, took a picture and gave him a piggy-back. I didn’t want karma to come back and get me.”
The Second Most Outrageous Story
Brendan Shanahan has been traded twice in his career. He was already a bonafide star when it happened the first time in the summer of 1995. One year earlier, he inked a $15.4 million, five-year deal with the St. Louis Blues, which was retroactive to the 1993-94 season.
When the coach and general manager, Mike Keenan, announced that he had moved the 26-year-old stud winger, Blues fans were up in arms. They were shipping out one of the best players in hockey, a man who had back-to-back seasons in St. Louis where he scored more than 50 goals (51 in 1993 and 52 in 1994).
The return for Keenan and the Blues was an upcoming defenseman, a 20-year-old Chris Pronger. It was incredibly risky at the time and had many in the Gateway City furious with Keenan. It happened to turn out well thanks to Pronger developing into an outstanding player, but at the time, Blues fans thought they were duped by the Hartford Whalers.
The fanbase wasn’t wrong to be unhappy. In order for St. Louis to sign Shanahan as a restricted free agent, they had to give up some sort of compensation. The Devils asked for the Blues’ captain, Scott Stevens, a clear overreach. Unfortunately for the Blues, an arbitration judge sided with the Devils and had him sent to New Jersey. The fans watched as the Captain and now their best player both left town too soon.
What makes the tale outrageous is the cast of characters involved in shuffling Shanahan between organizations. In 2007, Stevens was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. In 2015, Pronger was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Shanahan’s second and only other trade in his career was one he was requesting at the time. It saw him shipped with his teammate Brian Glynn by the Whalers to the Detroit Red Wings for Keith Primeau and Paul Coffey. Once again, it took a Hall of Fame player to complete a transaction for Shanahan. Coffey was inducted in 2004. Primeau never made the Hockey Hall of Fame, but he is in the Whitby Sports Hall of Fame.
In each of the three exchanges for Shanahan, he was swapped for a future Hall of Famer. He, himself was inducted into the Hall in 2013 for his remarkable career as a player.
The Most Outrageous Brendan Shanahan Story
The most outrageous Shanahan story is one that some believe is drenched with scandal. In reality, it’s actually a love story.
For many years there have been unsubstantiated rumours that there was something untoward about Shanahan’s exit from the Blues. When he was traded away in 1995, Blues fans believed that Keenan made a hockey decision. The trade was later blamed on the relationship between him and his former teammate Craig Janney’s wife. This helped make the swap more digestible.
On the ice, Janney and Shanahan played well together. They were considered a dynamic duo with the nickname “Shannie and Janney“. Off the ice, the pair were very close as well. The same can be said about Shanahan and Janney’s wife, Catherine, who Shanahan later married.
It has been reported on several sites that much like Janney and his then-wife, the Blues needed to divorce themselves from Shanahan. They allegedly couldn’t keep Shanahan in the dressing room with his “former best friend” because of his new relationship, and so they traded him.
The truth is, Janney had already long departed to the San Jose Sharks. Understanding the timeline of events may be what makes this a very confusing situation. On March 3, 1994, the Blues signed center Petr Nedved, then a 22-year-old restricted free agent. As previously outlined, the NHL rules at the time required compensation in return for signing another team’s RFA. The Vancouver Canucks asked for Shanahan to be sent their way but the Blues refused. An arbitrator ruled that the Canucks would get Janney and a second-round pick instead.
Even though St. Louis had claimed to be victorious in the arbitrator’s decision, they wanted to reacquire Janney and that’s exactly what they did. Keenan sent defencemen Jeff Brown and Bret Hedican along with forward Nathan LaFayette to Vancouver for the rights to Janney on March 21 that year.
Almost exactly one year later, the Blues had a change of heart and shipped Janney and cash to the Sharks for Jeff Norton and a third-round pick. This is significant because the swap took place four months before Keenan pulled the trigger on the Shanahan deal.
Despite Shanahan being sent to the Whalers, he kept in touch with Catherine. And while her marriage to Janney dissolved, her new relationship with Shanahan blossomed. Despite the turmoil of changing cities and skeptical onlookers, they managed to let their romance shine bright. The pair got hitched in 1998.
The problem with rumours and hearsay is that they can have real consequences. It is believed that the Hockey Hall of Fame Selection Committee punished Shanahan for his time in St. Louis. They apparently believed that he was traded out of the city because of tensions with Janney over the budding relationship with Catherine. This could be a potential reason why Shanahan wasn’t a first-ballot Hall of Famer despite being labeled as such along with Joe Sakic on NHL.com in 2012. This snubbing by the Selection Committee forced Shanahan to wait an extra year to enjoy the honour.
As for the Toronto Maple Leafs President and Catherine. Their love is still undefeated. They remain married today and even have three children together.
Next. 2020 Mock Draft and the Leafs Big Decision. dark
While it may be fun to revisit some of Shanahan’s best tales, it would certainly be better to regale about a time when he won Lord Stanley’s Mug with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Hopefully, this will one day be added to the repertoire of stories about the stoic executive.