Maple Leafs Fire Their Coach!

The Toronto Maple Leafs today fired their coach after only 2 seasons. Paul Maurice, who was hired by former General Manager John Ferguson Jr., was supposed to get this current crop of players into the playoffs and be be perrenial competitors. He came in with a lot of plans and promise, but he never could get them over the hump.

I don't think this was totally Maurice's fault. Ferguson handed out bad contracts, most having "no movement clauses," to players who don't really fit in their system. The current GM, interim Cliff Fletcher-JFJ was fired due to the state of the Leafs, has been unable to start a real re-build process because he is unable to move those players with the "no movement clauses."

The Leafs now have no GM (since Fletcher is only there on an interim basis and according to him he's not involved in the process to hire a new one), no coach, and no captain since Mats Sundin is an unrestricted free agent looking for a home. While the captaincy issue isn't too big a deal and the coach process will be handled in time, they need to figure out who their new GM will be. They have a lot of people to re-sign and the draft is only 6 weeks away.

I understand why Maurice was fired, but Toronto is in a big hole looking a long way up.

My Panthers aren't much better, but I think they're closer to having their act together.