The faster Keith Pelley hires a proven hockey operations boss, the better.<\/p>\n
It would spare us another news conference that underlined his inexperience in real life, real time NHL issues, a state of the union address that left many in a state of confusion.<\/p>\n
In a noble attempt to cover all bases of a newsy Tuesday; firing his general manager \u2014 answering for a non-playoff season after his second full year at the helm \u2014 the CEO made a formal address, took general questions, then took on a scrum of beat writers.<\/p>\n
But the exchange raised more questions than answers,\u00a0more incongruities than insight.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s\u00a0look at a\u00a0few:<\/p>\n
PELLEY ON WHAT WENT WRONG THIS SEASON<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I had the right leadership in place. A lot of factors went into this. Without getting into specifics, we didn\u2019t have the alignment, the culture and the structure. You could find a number of issues (such as) injuries. We need to be better and need to adapt quicker.\u201d<\/p>\n
COUNTERPOINT: Pelley set up that alignment by firing president Brendan Shanahan<\/a> (as he did with Masai Ujiri of the Raptors<\/a>), taking some of Shanny\u2019s administrative duties, and giving more hockey clout to GM Brad Treliving and head coach Craig Berube, who weren\u2019t on the same page as various crises arose.<\/p>\n All teams have injuries, but not all have the negative dynamics befalling the Leafs. All three men could not arrest passive efforts, system failures, prolonged losing streaks, stubborn lineup decisions, and a leadership void, capped by an underwhelming trade deadline haul.<\/p>\n ON DROPPING TO THE\u00a0BOTTOM\u00a0OF\u00a0THE\u00a0ATLANTIC\u00a0DIVISION<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u00a0definitely\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0see the train coming, which was the Buffalo\u00a0Sabres\u00a0and the Montreal Canadiens, how\u00a0strong those teams are,\u00a0along with the likes of Detroit,\u00a0Ottawa\u00a0and Boston, the re-tooling\u00a0with\u00a0Florida and\u00a0Tampa\u00a0Bay.<\/p>\n \u201cBuffalo and Montreal have shown what a young, energetic team they\u2019re going to be for a long time with the prospects they have.\u201d<\/p>\n COUNTERPOINT:\u00a0\u2018You\u2019d think one of Toronto\u2019s SIX ASSISTANT GMs might have said something,\u201d\u00a0zinged\u00a0old friend Mark Spector of Sportsnet\u00a0via \u2018X\u2019\u00a0about the train analogy.<\/p>\n Not that local media haven\u2019t sounded that warning in recent years as the Maple Leafs foundered in the playoffs. Berube acknowledged the same as most of the aforementioned teams beat the Leafs early in the schedule.<\/p>\n Now those other clubs\u2019 draft picks keep coming of age, while the Leafs pay for trading four of the past seven first-rounders. They also moved on from Mitch Marner<\/a> as the first of what could be a couple of exits of their vaunted \u2018foundational\u2019 players. Oh, and there\u2019s no first-round selections in the cupboard, for at least two of the next three drafts.<\/p>\n ON GOING\u00a0DATA-SAVVY WITH THE NEXT HIRE<\/p>\n \u201cThey have to be data-centric., really understand the importance of data, and where that\u2019s moving. We have just completed a review of Toronto FC, all its data, combined with cultural checks.<\/p>\n \u201cI strongly believe we\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0use data as well as we need to. That would change.\u00a0The\u00a0whole\u00a0thing with\u00a0data\u00a0is\u00a0everyone has access to it and AI (artificial intelligence).\u00a0AI is\u00a0massive,\u00a0it is changing our business.\u00a0\u00a0It really comes down to how smart you are\u00a0and\u00a0how\u00a0you use it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEvery single decision we make will be evidence-based. They\u2019re never wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n COUNTERPOINT:\u00a0The Leafs had someone on the crest of the analytics wave in assistant and later full-time GM Kyle Dubas. It wasn\u2019t number-crunching that specifically led to his departure, but Dubas\u2019 Leaf legacy is a large research wing headed\u00a0\u00a0by Darryl Metcalf, one of those holding an assistant GM title.<\/p>\n Pelley overlooked that, while giving lavish praise to Carolina Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky, recognized as the league\u2019s highest qualified data exec at the moment. But not only is Tulsky settled with the Canes, he was an available candidate when Shanahan had to replace Dubas in haste with Treliving.<\/p>\n ON WHAT THE LEAFS STILL HAVE TO BUILD WITH<\/p>\n