What Happened to Cliff Fletcher's Plan?

What happened to those cold days last winter when John Ferguson Jr was let go and Cliff Fletcher rode in, in all his glory to save the Leafs. Remember last February and the push to the trade deadline when he had deals done for Sundin, Kaberle and Kubina only to have them determine that loosing in Toronto was OK by them. Remember the rage and ire Cliff had and the promise for change and rebuilding?

What happened?

Ron Wilson!

Ever since Ron Wilson was hired to coach this team the philosophy has changed.
For starters Mats Sundin was tendered a lucrative contract with a possible "no trade".  Wilson does need a #1 centre and I believe if Mats does play in the NHL it will be in Toronto.
Darcy Tucker and his 18 off year goals were booted through the door for nothing and Jamal Mayers and his typical 12 goals was brought in and saved the Leafs a whopping 600K. Apparently Wilson didn't have much use for Tucker and raves about Mayers which also cost the team a third rounder.
Pavol Kubina's no trade expired in June and now in August there is talk of him possibly becoming the captain. Remember that rage at the trade deadline in Fletcher, Kubina was the biggest reason but it was Ron Wilson's Sharks that wanted him.
Then July 1st and the free agent signins of Hagman from Dallas and Finger from Colorado. Nobody would know these guys better than Wilson and most fans in TO don't know them at all..

So now that the Leafs are extremely overloaded at defence Fletcher is trying to push McCabe out the door. Once or if McCabe comes to his senses and provides Cliff with a small list of possible destinations what do you think Fletcher will get in return? Not much, maybe a mid round draft pick and a low to medium caliber prospect or a smaller money dump in return. Far less than what Kubina could land you with an open market of destinations.

So rebuilding by giving up McCabe (possibly), Tucker, Wellwood, Raycroft and Pohl and getting next to nothing in return and adding Finger, Hagman, Joseph, Mayers and Grabovski is definitely not the case. Its more like re-tooling, which is exactly what we have seen from JFJ for the last several years.

Fletcher had a great opportunity to reshape this team at the draft. With assets like Antropov, Ponikarovsky, Kubina and even Toskola, Fletcher could have taken control of a deep draft and reshaped this team for the future, like he wanted to do at the trade deadline.

So it begs the question: Who is running the show? Is Peddie still pulling the strings and wanting playoff gold or is it simply a new coach that has been so close to winning, unable to come to a team that is on the downward and doing everything he can to keep the team more than just competitive.

With a bonified #1 goalie in Toskola, a solid core of defense and a poor offensive attack Leaf fans will be treated to many boring, grind out, low scoring hockey games this year. But with that means points and a team that will stay close to a playoff spot. So for "Tank Nation" and their dreams of the Leafs selecting John Tavaras next year here is your wake up call, its not going to happen.

Not with Fletcher, er, I mean Wilson running the show and that is a shame in the long run!