As the last billow of black smoke dissipated from the tirefire that was the 2014-15 Leafs season, Damien Cox had the latest on the next steps in Brendan Shanahan’s continued overhaul of the Leafs organization.
Peter Horachek’s out as expected, but nothing conclusive still on Nonis:
Major housecleaning expected with Leafs next week. Won't be just Peter Horachek. Future of GM Dave Nonis will be announced Monday.
— Damien Cox (@DamoSpin) April 12, 2015
Mark Hunter, Kyle Dubas staying, but neither will be GM if Nonis dismissed.
— Damien Cox (@DamoSpin) April 12, 2015
Cox also mentions two names that have been in the rumour circles for a while as possible front office adds:
Rob Blake, Sean Burke two execs on TOR radar.
— Damien Cox (@DamoSpin) April 12, 2015
The word on Rob Blake for a few months now has been that he’s very comfortable in Los Angeles and has zero intention of leaving this offseason. As for Sean Burke, he’s known to be actively seeking out a management position after gaining a solid reputation for his work as a goalie coach, most notably for helping to overhaul Devan Dunbyk’s game while he was in Arizona and his NHL career was hanging on by a thread.
Leaf prez Brendan Shanahan met with GM Dave Nonis today, will do so again tomorrow, decision pending. Again, Monday is the day.
— Damien Cox (@DamoSpin) April 12, 2015
This is Shanahan's one opportunity to clear the decks, out his team in place.
— Damien Cox (@DamoSpin) April 12, 2015
What are the meetings with Dave Nonis all about? If he’s getting fired outright, why a few days of meetings first? Very likely the coaching staff will be cleared out, but it’s far from clear yet what Brendan Shanahan intends to do with the GM position. It seems awkward and unlikely that an experienced GM would enter a situation in which his assistants have been hired by someone else (Shanahan). That doesn’t necessarily mean Nonis will or should remain in his current role, though. Firing Nonis and plucking an up and coming GM from an assistant’s role somewhere else in the League, who can mesh into what Shanahan’s already building, might be the route the Leafs take.
Outside of the GM post, Brendan Shanahan has also left the scouting and development staffs largely untouched to date. All the pro scouts remain from before he arrived, led by the Director of Pro Scouting, Steve Kasper. Director of Player Development Jim Hughes was a Burke hire. Director of Amateur Scouting Dave Morrison has held his role since the John Ferguson Jr. regime.
There’s little sense in speculating at this point and more sense in waiting for Monday before speaking, because even those whose job it is to report on this stuff don’t seem to have any idea what Brendan Shanahan will do.
