Written by Chris Wassel | 31 May 2008

First it was Burke. Perhaps the Ducks ownership group. Then the Sharks, the Wings, the Devils, the Canadiens, Fabian Brunstromm, Jacques Martin, Doug Armstrong and now possibly Sundin? About the only people that have not completely rejected the Leaf franchise in the past few months were Cliff Fletcher and the Phoenix Coyotes group, Alex Steen, David Nonis (not yet anyway) and I suppose Gordon Kirke. Making this for a very odd spring indeed.

So what is it about the MLSE that has NHL personnel avoiding them like the plague?

Obviously when targeting men under contract, rejection is to be assumed for the most part. But what we must understand is that both the Ducks and the Wings organizations refusal of handing over permission to speak with members in their organization, was merely in response to the growing media scrutiny. Toronto had never contacted them and nobody can guarantee that they were ever planning to.

Secondly, the mentioning of names such as Lou Lamoriello and Bob Gainey have only been said in passing and I would suspect that their would have been countless stories from both New Jersey and Montreal had this rumor been accurate.

What we do know to this point, is that the Leafs first targeted Doug Wilson of the San Jose Sharks, waiting a week until after his team was ousted out of the playoff picture by the Dallas Stars. San Jose declined to give them the opportunity.

Soon after the Leafs asked the Vancouver Canucks for permission to speak with David Nonis merely out of respect, since permission was not needed in this case. They then had a few interviews with the man after he had already had a visit with the Blues organization. Speculation tells us that the job the Leafs offered was not for the GM position, but more than likely Mike Penny's old position instead. Nonis has not yet decided, while he is more than likely looking for a better offer elsewhere.

The Leafs then called former Stars GM; Doug Armstrong about an interview to which he agreed. Armstrong would prove to be the only actual candidate that had gone on record saying that he would definitely be interested in getting the vacant job. But in a surprising turn of events, he cancelled his interview and it was announced that he agreed to a deal with the Blues to be their GM in waiting. Why Armstrong did not wait to decide until after having his interview with the Leaf camp, has not been reported as of yet. Some have speculated that it had to do with the superior prospects the Blues have in their stable, but that is doubtful. So perhaps the Leafs made mention over the phone that the job they were offering him was for either an Associate GM or a Co-GM.

The Leafs contacted the Florida Panthers for permission to speak with Joe Nieuwendyk who had already announced his resignation from the franchise. This came at the heels of Doug Gilmour expressing an interest to get into the coaching side of things which leads us to believe that he was told that his position in the pressbox will be coming to an end. Jacques Martin denied the Leafs permission despite only having control over Nieuwendyk until July 1st this year and with no chance of a reconciliation. Whether Jacques decision was due to some bitterness over the Chad Kilger trade he pulled off at the deadline, or being publicly embarrassed by Joe this offseason, is not entirely clear.

Now it seems that this ongoing turmoil will affect the future relationship between Mats Sundin and the Leaf organization. Should he stay with this team only to take a home town discount and having no shot at the cup while not knowing who will be in charge at the next trade deadline and thus having no idea if he will have to go through the same thing he went through this past season? Will he put his trust into an organization that has left us all with various broken promises in the past 7 weeks? No prospective GM with the credentials that Richard Peddie spoke about the day JFJ was fired has had a formal interview with the team. No earth shattering player movement has been made in the time that Fletcher was brought aboard. And now that we await confirmation from either the MLSE or Ron Wilson that an interview has been put in place for the prospective new head coach prior to a GM being named, were the reasons given for dismissing Paul Maurice, just another mirage?

I have spent the last few months trying my best to separate the actual facts of this incumbent Leaf rebuild, from the vast amounts of speculation pumped out of our media (i.e ~ The Burke Theory). In each case, trying to keep my head above water to be on the lookout for any possibly sign of positivity. Given that I am not exposed to such things from my local papers, radio reports, or television. However, if this latest rumor of the Leafs setting up an interview with Ron Wilson to coach their team proves true, the ship will have officially sunk. There is no excuse for any NHL franchise to not be able to name themselves a new GM on any given offseason. And a worthy one to boot.

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