How John Ferguson Wrecked the Toronto Maple Leafs for the Decade

What happened to the Leafs?  They were competitive for a decade…how did they end up out of playoffs for three years, with many more ahead?  Well, he has been vilified already, but that doesn’t mean he’s not the villain.  Of course we can blame ownership for hiring him and the fans for attending. However, in the end JFJ made the moves that led the Leafs to the bottom of the bloated NHL.

How did he do it?

1)  Giving away the future.  Ferguson traded away three first round picks and three second round picks in four years.  I’m not sure why this has even been done. The only way it could possibly make sense is if the team is going for the Cup, and nobody believed the Leafs were knocking on the door when these moves were made. 

What did we get for these picks?  37 year old Brian Leetch for a few months, Raycroft for Rask (!) and Toskala.  Brutal.

2) Signing players past their peak to huge, contracts with a no-trade clause after "career" years.  It must have been the talk of the league, have a good year and get the Leafs to lock you in for a fat no-trade contract. It certainly worked for Leafs who pumped up their points on the power play, particularly Byan McCabe and Darcy Tucker.

It also worked for outsiders, notably Jason Blake, after a fluke 40 goal season. Pavel Kubina also signed while the signing was good.  With all of this salary cap used up and these players loving life with fan adulation on Hogtown, there was no room at all to reshape the team. 

3) Wasting time, money and focus on signing players who were in their last years.  Michael Peca, Joe Nieuwendyk, Ron Francis and Eric Lindros were all very good players at one time…but that time was long past by the time they came to the Leafs, and everyone knew it.

The Leafs became a lesser, modern version of the Rangers who signed Hall of Famers such as Bobby Hull, Marcel Dionne, Guy Lafleur, and Wayne Gretzky, all as they loomed over retirment from league. If this focus was spent on signing college students or younger UFAs, the Leafs could have rebuilt while remaining competitive.

It can only hurt to imagine what could have been done with even an average GM like Jim Rutherford over these years, much less a Scotty Bowman—who was available.  We can only hope that Burke stays patient and doesn’t go after a Pronger or the like to satisfy some perceived lust from Leafs fans to be mediocre as soon as possible.