Shooting fish in a barrel

The Leafs fell out of the playoff race a lot faster than I thought they would. They can't beat anyone and they've looked terrible in their recent loses. Currently they sit eight points behind 8th place Boston, who also have a game in hand. Five teams are between them and playoff spot so while 8 points isn't a lot to make up in half a season (especially over a team they play five more times), passing that many teams is pretty much impossible. They're not making the playoffs this year. That's it. It's over. At this point, they're not making the playoffs next year either and they're only getting older, so it's time to tear it apart and start over. The GM has put together a bad team, the coach isn't getting through and upper management wants to make changes. In any other city, the team president fires the GM, brings in a new guy who had been sought out quietly behind the scenes, leaves it up the new GM to either keep or fire the coach, all with enough time before the trade deadline to assess the team and make the right trades. Not the Leafs! No sir!

Instead of mercifully firing the incumbent John Ferguson Jr., out comes the report from TSN that they've asked Cliff Fletcher to step in to run the team while they find a new GM. In other words, they're asking an outsider to act as the interim GM while they find another outsider with only six weeks before the trade deadline while the current GM is still employed. Here's the Leafs plan, apparently: Hire a temporary outsider as the GM (yes indeed a former Leafs GM, but that was ten years ago) who won't be allowed to make changes and will presumably putter around until a REAL replacement can be found (one who will undoubtably want Bryan Colangelo-style autonomy), who will then scramble to figure out how his team works and what trades can possibly be salvaaged before the deadline. Knowing the speed at which the Leafs brass makes changes, they'll be lucky to have found a permanent replacement by the draft.

There's two awful things about this situation. First, poor JFJ. Out come the reports that his replacement is being actively sought the day after Richard Peddie tells TSN that "John Ferguson Jr. is still the General Manager" (by asking Fletcher to take over now, they're sending the message that anyone, ANYONE, is better suited to running the team than he is. They'll probably ask JFJ to show the new guy around and help him set up his computer.). Second, the trade deadline is the point at which they can extract greater trade value from their players than at any other point in the season. They'll have lots of teams dreaming for spring (and summer) glory bidding against each other for Leaf veterans. Wouldn't it be great to have your new GM in place long before the deadline? Give him the chance to start the bidding as soon as possible? Nah, let's take our time with outside hires and delayed solutions. Just resign JFJ! You're done anyways, you don't need this unprofessional treatment so make the pre-emptive strike! Ottawa's just down the road, maybe you can facilitate getting Sundin traded there...