Management

Brendan Shanahan

 

Thank you Brendan Shanahan for all you have done for this organization.  You took your time and made hard decisions and bold moves. The people you hired were not lured here by the recent success of the organization, they came here because they believe in you and your Shanaplan.

   

I don’t believe the Leafs owe us a Cup this year, I believe they owe us several over the next decade. Brendan Shanahan and Kyle Dubas are doing a good job of making that a reality.  I am not one of those fans that cries for heads to roll after every loss, I am definitely in on the big picture.

 

Kyle Dubas

 

Thank you Kyle Dubas for turning the Marlies into a Calder Cup Championship team but also for turning the organization into a development team.  Many AHL teams have won the Calder by burrying their bad contracts in the AHL and having a team full of NHL veterans take advantage of a bunch of prospects.  It's not often a team full of prospects can go the distance, but our Marlies did.  Sure, there were a few veterans on the team, but the core of the team has been developing prospects for the last 5 years.  This bodes well for the future of the Leafs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwsByZz1nZQ

I would have liked to see Dubas and Sparks stay with the Marlies one more year, so we could keep Lamoriello, Hunter and McElhinny but contracts being what they are, I am glad we made the right choices for the future.  

I think Dubas did a great job in his first year.  The Nylander contract was handled well, he had a rough start to the season but it's good for other RFA's to see what he went through by sitting out.  I think Nylander's contract is great, in 3 years he will be significant;y underpaid.  
I understood his decison to go with Sparks over McElhinny.  You don't spend 5 years developing the AHL goalie of the year only to waive him before you give him a chance, it wouldn't look good to all the other Marlies.  I blame Babcock for mishandling the Sparks situation. 

I like the Muzzin trade, he brings skills we were missing on our backend, I think it is great if he re-signs with us, I think we will regret losing Grudnstrom and our first rounder if Muzzin walks after next season.  If we can't get him to sign, maybe we should be looking to move him before the deadline to recoup some of what we gave up to get him.  I don't want to get into the rental market until we are closer to a Cup, I would be okay if we were sellers at the deadline.  It hurts our immediate chances but strengthens our chances down the road. 
I am happy Dubas didn't do anything stupid at this year's deadline.  I don't want to go all in for a couple more years.  In fact, I think I might have tried to move Gardiner for a second rounder at the deadline and then offer the Rangers our third for McQuaid.  It would even out the lefty/righty problem on our blueline and we would basically have traded a third rounder for a second rounder (higher in the draft order).  
 

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