The Top 5 Grinches in Toronto Maple Leafs History
By Jeff Borsuk
Grinch #4
The Toronto Maple Leafs have had many great general managers. They’ve also had some that would be best forgotten. One of them is can be referred to as a Grinch. That’s John Ferguson Jr. He did everything he could as the Leafs GM to make watching the team a painful exercise. He did this through a series of very questionable decisions.
At age 36, Ferguson took the managerial reins of the Maple Leafs from the team’s coach, Pat Quinn ahead of the 2003-04 season. He remained with the team until 2008. That was more than enough time to do cause significant damage.
There’s nothing more Grinchworthy than firing a legend. That’s exactly what Ferguson did when Quinn missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in seven years. He removed the coach along with his assistant Rick Ley to make way for Paul Maurice.
What was even more head-scratching was that Leafs finished the previous season with 90 points on a 41-33-8 record. They were just two points shy of the eighth seed and defending Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning.
Ferguson was also responsible for some truly terrible trades. He loved shipping out draft picks. He sent the New York Rangers a first-round (#24) and a second-round (#40) pick along with Maxim Kondratiev and Jarkko Immonen to acquire a 36-year-old Brian Leetch. That was a hefty payment for a rental player who didn’t return to Toronto the following season.
Ferguson also paid big for goaltender Vesa Toskala and Mark Bell. He gave the San Jose Sharks a first (#13), second (#44), and fourth-round (#98) pick. As much of a flop as that turned out to become, when it comes to trading for a goalie, there is one transaction that stands out as the worst of all-time. That’s a JFJ move as well.
Ferguson is the man behind the infamous Andrew Raycroft trade. To bring him to Toronto, the Leafs sent the Boston Bruins Tuukka Rask. As painful as that is, it’s only made worse by the knowledge that Boston would have taken Justin Pogge instead of Rask to make the swap.