What Ails the Leafs (pt. 3)
The defense has struggled horribly, and the offense[[[link]]] has played at precisely the level you would expect. The goalies are inconsistent and overpriced, and neither is capable of either playing as a backup, or taking a starting job… I guess that just leaves me with management and coaching. It’s tough to fairly assess a coach in the NHL; in the end the players are required to perform on the ice and the final responsibility falls on them. At the same time, a coach is responsible for making sure that their players are ready, and maximizing performance. Based on these criteria, how can we evaluate Paul Maurice?
More than anything, the fact that most of the Leafs players are performing at exactly the level people expected them to certainly suggests that the coach is not the person responsible for their early ineptitude. Raycroft is playing to the exact same level that he “achieved” last year and Toskala is inconsistent and often hung out to dry. The [[[LINK]]]offense is inconsistent and suffers as a result of not having any really dynamic players, and the [[[link]]]defense is crippled by bad decision making.
All that being said, the Leafs are clearly not practicing what Maurice is preaching. They seem to “get it” for a a couple of periods, or even a couple of games at a time, and then all of a sudden it’s like someone stuck lead weights their skates. When the Leafs are playing smart positional hockey (what Maurice was brought in to emphasize) they are an effective forechecking team and reliable defensively, and a promising road-trip last week suggests that Maurice has a strong system in place. At this point the players have just failed to stick to the game plan with any kind of consistency, and it may have already cost them a playoff spot.
Wither John Ferguson Jr? This man is a case-study in bad asset management. So far he is responsible for paying Ed Belfour $11 million dollars to not play a single game of hockey, making Bryan McCabe the highest paid road-pylon in North America and throwing in a no-movement clause just for good measure, and trading 4 draft picks and a goaltending prospect for two backup goaltenders… although in all fairness, for those picks he did also get a suspended alcoholic who will miss the start of NEXT season because he’ll be in jail and is a lock to score 10-15 goals this season.
The truth is that John Ferguson has been a disaster as a GM. At first I was cautiously optimistic, he was young and had no baggage with the franchise; could be precisely what the team needed… Then he displayed an appalling lack of foresight, first by signing Belfour just in time to ensure that he gets paid during the lockout (even though EVERYONE else knew it was coming.) Ok, so he needs a mulligan. Then he signs Tie Domi to a 1.2 million (per year) dollar contract that he eventually has to buy out. Trying to spend his way out of spending problems, he has carried on the timeless traditions of bring in veteran Leafs and washed up greybeards late in the season to help not improve the team, and squander the sort of mid/late round picks which produce the sort of depth players that the Leafs increasingly bring in through free agency and trades. In the last two years the Leafs have actually wasted draft picks on Yannic Perrault, Luke Richardson and even Tyson Nash… not only have these players failed to guide the Leafs to the playoffs, Richardson’s addition didn’t even improve the team’s overall performance, Perrault ended up being benched several times and Nash was immediately sent to the AHL.
When you balance it out, the team has over the last 3 years lost a slew of draft picks and several prospects, and in the process signed long-term deals with players far above their market value, crippling their ability to bring in impact players. Ferguson presumably felt that the market for defensemen was about to tighten, and by signing long-term contracts at high dollar value, he was capitalizing early. Unfortunately his predictions (which nobody else matched) turned out disastrously wrong.
Bad scouting/drafting and management of draft picks is bad enough; when you add overspending on non-impact players and poor salary-cap management you have the current Toronto Maple Leafs. A team that needs to go all out to stay mediocre, with no help on the immediate horizon.