corsi fenwick said:
I don't think anything is going to happen out of the gate, but I do think both Nonis and Carlyle are on notice. Maybe Shanahan isn't sure if he has his GM and coach in place, or not. Perhaps he sees potential in both of these guys as far as the Leafs achieving success, but is demanding something beyond what they've delivered so far. Maybe it's up to them to step up.
Maybe Shanahan takes a season to evaluate what is happening with the Leafs, top to bottom and not much happens, but it seems Tim Leiweke has given Shanahan free reign to make whatever changes to the Leafs he deems necessary.
See, but that's what's confusing here. I absolutely buy a "let's wait and see" attitude if you're of the opinion that 10 weeks is somehow too short a time for an incoming GM to evaluate the organization pre-draft. Likewise, I also understand someone being hired to the position Shanahan was with a very specific idea in his head of where he wanted to go and making bold choices to accomplish that.
But I don't really get the in between. I don't get the "Let's give Randy and Dave a year to see what they've got, but clearly the AGM's and assistant coaches have to go" mentality.
And that's what's been so puzzling because as much as people seem to want to, there is no real good or definitive explanation that accounts for everything we've seen this off-season. Shanahan is an enemy of the status quo...who kept Carlyle and Nonis around. The team is getting a lot smarter...but would have backed up a brinks truck to Dave Bolland's house. Shanahan is an inch away from firing the GM and Coach...and yet making decisions that would seemingly preclude any high profile outside candidates coming into either position. There is no one narrative that fits all of those facts.
Well, excepting I guess something that we maybe glossed over a bit when Shanahan got hired because everyone was so disappointed in the Leafs' season. The Leafs hired someone as their President with no front office experience. None. Not as a scout, not as a AGM or a coach...zilch. It was probably naive of us to think Shanahan was going to hit the ground running.
Like you, after watching this off-season I'm still undecided on Shanahan and, by that extension, Leiweke. That's why, at this point, the only thing that interests me is clarity. I want to know if, should Nonis get fired, we should be expecting the sort of new GM who would take a job where he wasn't really running the team.