The Toronto Maple Leafs: Reading from the Book of Raptors

I sat down at my kitchen table this morning, poured my cereal, and opened the paper to right where I always do on Sundays: Steve Simmons and his Simmons Says article.

Now I don't usually agree with Steve Simmons, nor do I plan my entire Sunday around his article—reading it is just force of habit from my younger days.

In fact, I like him about as much as I like Bob Cole, Tim McCarver, Jamie Campbell, or Vince Carter.

However, his writing does what it should do—spark debate.

So imagine my reaction when I read (in relation to Toronto's 29th-ranked penalty kill): "What does that say about Paul Maurice or his choice of assistant coaches?"

Now for the past few months, Steve has been chastising the Leafs as to how they should be following the Toronto Raptors business model and hiring a "Bryan Colangelo-type hockey mind".

So let's look at what the Raptors did.

In 2004 Sam Mitchell was hired to coach the Raptors with no previous experience as a head coach coach—only as an assistant coach.

All Mitchell did was bring a stable personality to the team (Kevin O'Neil had a very volatile character) as the Raptors become worse under Mitchell's watch .

In 2004-05 the Raptors went an identical 33-49, while in 2005-06 the Dinos slid even further ending the season at 27-55 (in O'Neil's final season the Raps held a 33-49 mark).

Mitchell's job looked to be in jeopardy until lame-duck GM Rob Babcock (in his first stint as GM anywhere) was blamed for the team's struggles and was fired on January 26th, 2006. 

At that point, Bryan Colangelo—the (for lack of a better term) saviour of this franchise—entered and turned the Raptors around with a series of moves—including winning the draft lottery for the first overall pick (Andrea Bargnani)—that  provided Sam Mitchell with the talent to actually win basketball games, which led to the team's first division title last season, and the chance to compete in the post-season for a second straight year this season.

Personal success wasn't too far behind team success for Mitchell, however, as he was the recipient of the 2006-07 NBA Coach of the Year award, and then received a four-year contract extension to remain with the Raptors.

Looking at Paul Maurice, he's in the same boat as Sam Mitchell was when Colangelo was hired in February of 2006—so much so that it's eerie.

Maurice (unlike Mitchell) has been a head coach in another market, and has actually seen a nominal amount of success. He has a 308-322-99(ties)-27 mark as a head coach in his career. He's been to the playoffs three times, and the Stanley Cup finals once.

The difference in previous success however, seems to be the only one Mitchell and Maurice share, as once they came to Toronto their careers take on near-identical looks. 

Once Maurice came to Toronto in 2006-07 (after a year with the Marlies), he was burdened by a team with a high payroll and little talent—put together by a rookie GM taking over from the Irish Juggernaut Pat Quinn (Another coach with a feisty temper).

In his first season in Toronto, Maurice led the Leafs to a 40-31-11 record—a whole point better than the 41-33-8 record Quinn had led them to the year before. 

The year after (or the 2007-08 season—in other words this season) the Leafs have crumbled, falling to 28th in the league (one point ahead of 29th Tampa Bay—with a game at hand) and have rid themselves of their own lame-duck, rookie GM (John Ferguson Jr.).

As the Maple Leafs' search for the hockey equivalent to Einstein trundles along though, the franchise—much like the Raptors did—is putting itself in favorable draft position for this coming summer.

Whether they find this virtuoso or not however, the pick certainly comes in handy. 

While the Leafs brain trust scours the world for their own "top executive" to come in and change this team's fortunes around, Paul Maurice has once option: to just sit there and wonder (like Mitchell did at one point) if he is going to be the chosen one to lead this team from the gallows to the competitive, proud franchise it once was (about forty-one years ago).

Granted, finding a great hockey mind that wants to come to Toronto seems to be more difficult than finding a great basketball mind that wanted to come here, but that's where that giant wad of cash under Larry Tanenbaum's mattress comes in handy. 

Once the solution is found, Paul Maurice could very well play the "it's only fair card". After all, Mitchell got the opportunity to play with his new toys, why shouldn't Paul?

Popular belief is however, that whoever comes in will bring his own coaching staff, spelling the end to the Maurice era.

If Toronto lands the number one pick in the draft this summer though, it seems like fate that Maurice should lead this team into the future doesn't it?