The Toronto Maple Leafs are an absolute mess and an unmitigated disaster.
After the second lifeless, listless, pathetic game in a row, Sheldon Keefe is now on borrowed time as the Toronto Maple Leafs coach.
After wasting $20 million in off-season spending, Brad Treliving has shown to be a terrible GM with no clue how to run a hockey team in 2023. Not only are the Leafs worse since he took over, but his Calgary Flames are also extremely bad.
He also needs to go.
But that is not enough.
Brendan Shanahan is done as President. Ever since he hijacked Kyle Dubas’ vision at last year’s trade deadline, ever since he panic-fired the guy who should have had his job, the Leafs have made one error after another.
It is time for Brendan Shanahan to go.
Time for the Toronto Maple Leafs to Fire Brendan Shanahan Etc.
The Toronto Maple Leafs problems are so bad precisely because they were so obvious and predictable.
- When they signed John Klingberg, many people pointed out that declining 31-year olds do not typically bounce back at the pro-level. Many of the same people made this exact point about Jake McCabe as well.
- When they signed Domi, many people pointed to the fact that, statistically, he was a replacement player, and being paid 3 x too much money.
- When they signed Reaves, many people pointed out that contracts to 36-year old enforcers were a bad idea.
- When they signed David Kampf, many people said that you shouldn’t give term and money to a fourth line centre who is extremely one-dimensional.
- Entering the season, pretty much everyone pointed out that their blue-line was terrible, lacking both depth and elite players needed to win.
- Entering the season, the blue-line was criticized for having only one physical player, another 30 year old who seemed to decline heavily last year.
- Analytics told us that every single move Treliving made was a bad one with a long-shot’s chance of working out. Tyler Bertuzzi, the best of the bunch, was pointed out to be overrated, and not capable of what was expected of him.
- Oh yeah, and he didn’t sign Nylander or get eight years out of Matthews.
We here at Editor in Leaf wrote about all these things, dozens of times, between July and October. A lot of the media bought into it, as “analytics” became kind of a dirty word, but all of these things were clear to anyone following the team and unwilling to buy into the new regime’s propaganda.
That is what is so frustrating about the Leafs right now – every problem that have was totally predictable back in the summer. Every struggling player’s struggles? Totally predictable.
Unless the Toronto Maple Leafs want to waste another prime season of three of the best players in franchise history, then major chances are needed.
Firing the coach isn’t enough.
Firing the GM isn’t enough., though both should be included in the house cleaning.
Brendan Shanahan is done. Whether now, or a year from now, he’s done. So let’s just fire him and get the new guy here before we waste any more time.
He really should have spent more than 30 seconds looking for a new GM.