Ask any Toronto Maple Leafs fan about Brendan Shanahan, and they'll probably tell you that he at least brought the team back to relevance. That's great and all, seeing the Leafs as a perennial playoff team and one capable of winning a Stanley Cup.
Elliotte Friedman echoed that sentiment on Friday's 32 Thoughts Podcast. When mentioning Shanahan's upcoming role as a consultant to the NHL, he said, "I expect his preference is to run another team, and I believe he will get that opportunity. Now, you know, for whatever people say about his time in Toronto, the question is, when you leave an organization, do you leave it in a better place than you found it? And the answer for him is yes. Like, there's no question that Toronto is a better team now than when he got there."
The problem was, under Shanahan, the Leafs never made it past the second round of the playoffs. Not great for someone whose tenure as team president and alternate governor kicked off in 2014. Friedman's not wrong, but the on-ice performance in the playoffs speaks for itself, and Shanahan didn't do enough to catapult the Leafs into deep playoff runs.
Maple Leafs should have been better off during Brendan Shanahan's tenure
While Shanahan was in charge, the Maple Leafs also only took two division titles, and one was during the truncated 2020-21 season. That said, they only won the Atlantic Division outright just once, in Shanahan's final season with the club. So what went wrong and why did the Leafs, while better off, underachieve?
For one, he put way too much faith in the "Core Four" of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and John Tavares. That group stuck together throughout Shanahan's tenure until the Leafs dealt Marner to the Vegas Golden Knights. And while they were one of the most dangerous groups in the NHL, Shanahan put so much money into them that it sacrificed depth thanks to putting the Leafs' backs against the salary cap wall.
It also meant he couldn't keep other upper-echelon players like Nazem Kadri (traded for Alexander Kerfoot and Tyson Barrie) and Zach Hyman around. Meanwhile, he should have let Sheldon Keefe go long before the Leafs' playoff exit following the 2024-25 season. Blowing a 3-1 lead to the Montreal Canadiens back in 2021 during the first round of the postseason should have necessitated the change, especially since the Canadiens had the lowest points total of all the playoff teams.
Elliotte Friedman wasn't wrong but there was more to the story
It's hard to call Elliotte Friedman "wrong," since if the Maple Leafs end up winning the Stanley Cup or even make a deep playoff run, a lot of credit will and should go to Shanahan. But he could have done a better job acknowledging Shanahan's shortcomings.
The Maple Leafs may be one of the NHL's premier franchises, but playing well and winning the occasional division title in the regular season isn't enough. Toronto was never deep enough to end the regular season as Presidents' Trophy winners, let alone getting into the playoffs and winning a Stanley Cup.
And in a place like Toronto, where good enough isn't enough, nor should it be, Shanahan is that guy who fans will look back on and say, "he fell short."