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"A 17 Year old Hockey Fan's Perspective on the NHL."
Bowmanville, ON • Canada • 21 Years Old • Male
The majority of sports pundits realize that when ever their is a change at a General Manager's position, a coaching change is also expected. This goes for almost all sports. All fans in Leafs Nation knew there was a GM change upcoming, and therefor the knowledgeable fans would realize that a coaching change would most likely be inorder.

However. . . in this situation, it seems that things are out of order. Generally the Upper Managment (Owners) will deside on a new GM who will then bring in his own Coaching Staff. However in this case, Leafs intern GM Cliff Fletcher chose to fire Paul Maurice before a new GM was in place. This begs the question, how close are the Leafs to completing their quest for a new GM. Could this mean the Leafs allready have a new GM lined up, whos plan was to fire Maurice and bring in his own coaching staff. It could be that Fletcher did this in advance of the hiring so fans wouldn't be so quick to hate the new GM.

If the Leafs have a new GM lined up I could spend hours speculating whom that may be, however I'll leave that to MLSE to make an announcement, and I believe this may happen within the next 48-72 hours.

There is an unwriten rule in Sports Management that you don't announce big news in the heat of the playoffs, with the start of round 3 not until Thursday night and Friday night, the Leafs announcing a new GM would fit this timing.

Will this news change how Mats Sundin feels about returning to Toronto? Mats will likely only want to play 1-3 more seasons in the NHL, and no doubt there is a voice somewhere in his mind telling him he wants to win a cup. If he were to resign in T.O. hell will have to learn to play a whole new system with a new coach. However it still seems to me that he will resign in Toronto no matter what as the voice telling him to stay is slightly louder then the one telling him to go to a Cup Contender.

How about the much talked about Fabian Brunnstrom? Would he want to come to a team with so much turmoil and change as the Maple Leafs? Well not much is known about this rumored phenom, the Leafs seem to be on a short lists of teams he would like to sign with. But because we know so little about this Scandinavian Sensation, it is hard to read what he might and will eventually do, it is really anyone's guess where he will end up, but the changes at MLSE can't exactly be a selling point until they know who will be in place at the GM and Coaching role.

Having said that Cliff Fletcher would not just fire Maurice if there is no plan to have a new GM in place in the very near future. You can expect some big news to come out of Leafs Nation within the next few days, or pundits everywhere, myself included, will be scratching their heads about the timing of Paul Maurice's demise in Leafs Nation.



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Filed Under:   Paul Maurice   Toronto Maple Leafs  
May 7, 2008 2:59 PM ET | Delete
I agree on the strange timing. If he was done, you expect this a week or so after the season ends. Maybe the Leafs had internal meetings and decided he was the wrong guy. They took advantage of the fact that there are no games now to get the firing in. At least they didn't do this during a heated series.
May 7, 2008 3:30 PM ET | Delete
yeah, i dont understand the timing either. i agree that a GM announcement could come soon. and ill bet almost anything they at least know who the next GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs will be, and they're just waiting to announce it for some reason
May 7, 2008 6:59 PM ET | Delete
I would have to agree with the thought that they already have a guy in place... they may have just requested permission to talk with nonis but how long were they talking to Fletch before they asked the yotes for permission.. grey area around that rule i guess... Although, if Nonis is th man... is he the RIGHT man? he didnt do much for the canucks post Burke.. I say keep Fletch on and nab Burkey come june 09.
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