How a few "good" men keep dysfunction alive and well in a wild and crazy post-lockout NHL. Today we look at Toronto's John Ferguson, Jr in my "stir the pot" weekend blogs.
Author's note: The following is either satire, hockey prognostication, an angry rant or just errant observations...anything factual or actually insightful is unintended
Part II: An Examination of "Fergielicious"* -
John Ferguson Jr., and the bureaucratic hodgepodge that is Toronto hockey
In the Coen Brothers movie,
Hudsucker Proxy, a young Tim Robbins is taken from the mailroom and given the head CEO job in order to fail so miserably that the Hudsucker company top management can buy the public stocks back at a discounted price. Paul Newman would chew on a cigar, muttering "sure, sure!" as Tim Robbins was poised to fail to make their nefarious plan succeed.
Jonh Fergurson's ascension, to some Toronto fans, smacks of this same situation where partners supported different horses. The minority owner firmly behind Pat Quinn, and the churlish men at the top wanting young, malleable and in-over-his-head: JFJ...John Ferguson, Jr.
One Thursday in late April, 2006, Toronto Maple Leafs GM John Ferguson announced that he had fired head coach Pat Quinn. From that point forward the media unfurled like a cat attacking a canary, and he has been mauled since. He took the job as GM when Quinn stepped down in the GM role. Reports thereafter had them locked in a pitched battle over the team as they failed to make the playoffs. Then the axe fell, and Quinn has been on the outside looking in since. Ferguson at that point said he wanted a coach who will give younger players a more prominent role, hiring Paul Maurice. His contention is that Pat Quinn wanted veterans, and that's why Ferguson saddled the team with ineffectual players like Allison, Lindros and others.
To me it smacks of inexperience and being in over his head, and afterward, letting Quinn take the fall for his own failure to see that the new NHL required speed, not slow plodding. After all, a GM's job is personnel and giving the coach players to work with, not the other way around. Whether Quinn wanted them or not is a moot point. Ferguson was trigger man, top evaluator and decision maker, and in 2006 he managed to remove the grizzled old battleaxe of a coach who's sourpuss could curdle even the most stalwart of hockeymen. Maybe that was JFJ's real aim? But after another lackluster season of missing pieces in TO and another missed playoffs with a mere two point difference in standings from 2006, you have to wonder if Ferguson is right for the job.
One of the most mindblowing things in JFJ's reign is his contract with Bryan McCabe. McCabe isn't even the best dman on the team, yet he makes a clear 1.5 million more than Kaberle. And again and again since, we've heard the many rumors and reports that McCabe has been asked to waive his NTC so Toronto can clear cash to sign more old vets. Kubina, just last season, also came into the fold with a ripe overpayment of 5 million per year. Last season he went from 38 pts to a piddling 23 pts for the season. Kaberle, their best dman gets $4.25 million. So just the "top 3" dmen on TO under JFJ's reign makes over: 16 million dollars.
Pat Quinn must be rolling in laughter as he shakes his head that JFJ tried to blame him for Toronto's languishing in mediocrity. Once again, this offseason, JFJ signs a 34 year old man who will only get slower and more brittle due the style that he plays, Jason Blake, to a 5 year deal at 4 million each. Islanders had only offered 3 years and barely even 3.5 per. Who was JFJ competing against? Himself? Now reports are that they might deal Raycroft as to make room for Yashin. And you know what's scary, at 3 million per year, it might be the best move they had made in years besides signing Boyd Devereaux.
But past JFJ, is the bureaucratic and politics of a Toronto hierarchy system that makes the Islanders continually slammed Committee system look golden. The upper management above JFJ sees the continual money rolling in and there seems to be no real urgency. And unless there is a real change in mindset, TO is in danger of becoming the early 2000's New York Rangers, refusing to rebuild and throwing cash to whatever flaws, cracks and weaknesses, failing to realize that very issue and failure to rebuild and retool is their biggest weakness of all. Someone should have them sign a mirror instead of a player.
Sure, sure!
To come...more dysfunction with Bob Gainey & Darcy Regier
*(props to Gsamsa for the name)
B.D. Gallof
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