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TORONTO — The Toronto Maple Leafs are looking to tread the same path as their corporate cousins, basketball's Toronto Raptors, as they fired general manager John Ferguson Jr. yesterday to make way for "a hockey version of Raptors manager Bryan Colangelo."
That's the calibre of young visionary executive being hunted by Cliff Fletcher, the 72-year-old former Leaf president who was brought back into the fold as interim general manager and consultant.
Fletcher will finish out the season as caretaker manager, and Paul Maurice will remain as coach, at least until this season is finished. But Fletcher, who will not be a candidate to stay on as manager, will keep one eye trained on a prospective new general manager for the Leafs, stumbling along at 27th in the 30-team National Hockey League.
"We all know why I'm here: to bring in as a good a hockey executive as there is out there, a Bryan Colangelo (type)," said Fletcher, who served as the Leafs general manager from 1991 to 1997. Colangelo, with full control on the Raptor side of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, turned the team in a season and a half from a playoff spectator to an Atlantic Division champion.
A photographer tries to get in front of newly-appointed Toronto Maple Leafs interim general manager Cliff Fletcher as he arrives for a news conference in Toronto, Tuesday. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
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"We hope lightning strikes twice," Peddie said.
The Maple Leafs missed the Stanley Cup playoffs each of the past two NHL seasons and are continuing to spiral downward this season with a record of 19 wins, 22 losses and eight regulation ties for 46 points. They own the second-worst record in the Eastern Conference and the substandard performance in Canada's biggest hockey market put Ferguson's job on the line. His firing had been predicted for weeks and yesterday's termination was no surprise.
"I apologize to the fans," Leafs co-owner and Maple Leaf Sport and Entertainment chairman Larry Tanenbaum said in a media scrum at a news conference that had the feel of a public hanging. Many of the MLSE board members were in the audience at the Air Canada Centre's Platinum Club to attend the firing announcement and the welcoming of Fletcher.
"In my lifetime, we're going to bring that Stanley Cup back to Toronto," Tenenbaum vowed.
"It's been very clear all along," Richard Peddie, president and chief executive officer of MLSE, said in an interview. "We've been missing the playoffs and it's been a struggle this year. I told him 'win and you'll get a contract extension.' But that didn't happen."
Peddie said reports that Ferguson's plans to rebuild the Leafs had been nixed by management were erroneous. "John made four strategic plan presentations to the board and every one of them was approved," the CEO said.
"It has become clear that change and a new direction is needed....and it's in the best interests of the Leafs and of John to begin the transition immediately," he said.
Ferguson leaves with a .559 winning percentage as a general manager, second in Leaf history only to the .591 of the man he replaced, Pat Quinn. The team set single-season records for points, wins and home wins under Ferguson.
But he never played the public relations game with the media and some of his trades and contracts were harshly criticized. His decisions on goaltending personnel included Ed Belfour at the end of his career and the struggling Andrew Raycroft. He awarded monster contracts to defencemen Pavel Kubina and Bryan McCabe. He was hamstrung by the no-trade contract of captain Mats Sundin.
Maurice was asked if he felt sorry for Ferguson. He answered like a coach who felt his management had crowded the salary cap without stockpiling talent.
"I don't (feel sorry). I'm disappointed in our performance. He's a bright man and he's going to do just fine," Maurice said.
The coach said he is not afraid that he is next to go, although a new general manager usually wants to hire his own bench boss.
"This is the best league in the world and it attracts very competitive people," Maurice said. "Winning is necessary and it drives you. Job security is something that doesn't come with the job."
Peddie and sports lawyer Gordon Kirke, who used to work as Peddie's agent, are the committee that will make the decision on the new general manager, but they will lean heavily on advice from Fletcher for his well-respected 50-plus years in the game and his management contacts. He was a Stanley Cup winner with Calgary and cut his teeth as a disciple of Sam Pollock's Montreal Canadiens dynasty. Fletcher will try to leave a clean, turn-key office for his successor.
"Cliff will have the autonomy and responsibility for all hockey matters, with focus on establishing a foundation from which the next general manager can build," Peddie said.
The rules for rebuilding a team are different from when Fletcher came into Toronto in 1991 and began bringing in people like Doug Gilmour, Sundin and goalie Grant Fuhr. Then, he mocked the slow talent development scenario with the phrase "draft schmaft." Now, with a salary cap, it's not so easy to "camouflage by getting free agents."
"You have to draft well. New Jersey did it, and they weren't early first-round picks. You have to do a total job of good scouting and you have to be a little lucky, too."
The MLSE board of directors met Monday and decided to make the change. Ferguson was informed of the news by Peddie on Tuesday morning.
Ferguson, named the Leafs' 12th general manager in 2003, could not move the club closer to its first Stanley Cup since 1967 despite the support of sellout crowds and the greatest profit of any NHL club.
Fletcher began his NHL career as a scout for the Canadiens in 1956 and first became a general manager with the Atlanta Flames in 1972, following the club when it moved to Calgary in 1980. Fletcher orchestrated the Flames' only Stanley Cup crown in 1989. He took over the Leafs in 1991 and a few swift deals brought runs to the Stanley Cup semi-finals in 1993 and 1994.
Fletcher came out of retirement in 1999 to serve as an adviser for the Tampa Bay Lightning for two seasons and became the Phoenix Coyotes general manager in 2001, serving with Gretzky as a coach until his firing last year.
The winning percentages of the past general managers of the Toronto Maple Leafs:
Conn Smythe (Feb. 17, 1927, to Oct. 1954).547
Hap Day(Oct. 1954, to March 25, 1957) .379
Howie Meeker (May 13, 1957, to Oct. 4, 1957) .000
Committee of Stafford Smythe, John Bassett, George Mara, George Gardiner, Jack Amell, Bill Hatch, and Ian Johnston managed the team to a .379 percentage for entire 70 game-schedule in 1957-58.
Punch Imlach (June, 1958, to April 6, 1969 and July 4, 1979, to September, 1981) .539
Jim Gregory (April 6, 1969, to May, 1979) .506
Gerry McNamara (Sept. 1981, to Feb. 7, 1988) .373
Committee of John Brophy, Dick Duff and Gord Stellick managed the team to a .260 percentage for 25 games in 1987-88.
Gord Stellick (April 28, 1988, to Aug. 11, 1989) .388
Floyd Smith (Aug. 15, 1989, to July 2, 1991) .428
Cliff Fletcher (July 2, 1991, to May 24, 1997) .502
Ken Dryden (Aug. 20, 1997, to July 14, 1999) .506
Pat Quinn (July 14, 1999, to August, 2003) .591
John Ferguson Jr., (Aug. 2003 to Jan. 22, 2008) .559
