By Tyler
Norwood
Thursday, June 5th, 2003
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With Toronto's latest foray into the playoffs ending in the first-round,
Leaf ownership must make some major decisions to bring the glory back to
a franchise that has won the most Stanley Cups of any team save Montreal,
but hasn't won since 1967.
The most important move that Leaf management must make is replace Pat Quinn.
During his five years as General Manager, the Leafs have been relatively
successful. But relatively successful is hardly enough. Toronto must replace
Pat Quinn.
Pat Quinn has sent Steve Sullivan packing only to see him become one of the
Blackhawks' top forwards. He traded Danny Markov for Travis Green and Robert
Reichel. Markov turned out to be one the most important defenseman in Phoenix's
youth movement, Reichel turned out to be an aging star who can barely be
counted on for fourth-line duty, and Green is just a marginal third-line
player. Quinn also let Nathan Dempsey walk via free-agency and, as it turns
out, Dempsey is a playing on the number one defensive pairing.
Pat Quinn signed Anders Eriksson and traded for Jyrki Lumme only to Eriksson
flop and be sent to St. John's. Lumme turned out to be an utter failure and
cost Toronto a number of games. Brain cramps, costly-pinches, and holding
onto the puck too long are the penchant of this way-past-glory-days Finn.
In the most recent offseason, Pat Quinn ignored the fantastic play of Corey
Schwab when he took the number one role when CuJo went down with injury.
He decided he'd sign Trevor Kidd. Behind Martin Brodeur, Schwab posted phenomenal
stats, sporting a 1.47 GAA, a .933 save percentage, and one shutout. Compare
that to current backup Trevor Kidd, who had a 3.11 GAA, an .896 save percentage,
and a 6-10-2 record. Hardly complementary to Quinn.
At the trade deadline this season, Toronto acquired Owen Nolan, Phil Housley,
Doug Gilmour, Glen Wesley -- all of whom failed, save Wesley, to make any
impact upon the series against Philadelphia. Phil Housley was benched several
times for poor defensive play, Nolan didn't score a single goal or make any
physical presence known, and Gilmour got injured in his first game back as
a Maple Leaf.
The trouble with Wesley is that it will be the most costly acquisition if
he fails to sign with Toronto this offseason. That would mean that Quinn
traded a second-round pick in a very deep draft for the play of a good defensive
D-man in one series!
All of this has happened in the course of five years. Fire Pat Quinn!
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