Little known scout helping Leafs
In the pursuit of Nikita Zaitsev, free-agent defenceman, a littleknown scout named Jim Paliafito played the part of successful starting pitcher.
He worked the first several innings, did all the necessary diligence on Zaitsev, before Brendan Shanahan and Lou Lamoriello came out of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ front-office bullpen and closed the deal at a Moscow restaurant.
“Imagine you’re Nikita, and you’re out to dinner with your parents and with Jim to talk about the Leafs. And then who walks in to the restaurant: Lou and Brendan? Think of what that feels like. A Hall of Fame general manager and a Hall of Fame player. And they’ve come to see you. I think at that point it was like, deal done,” said Zaitsev’s agent, Dan Milstein.
“I represent a lot of Russian players, and here’s what I tell the GMs I deal with: If you want my player, you have to jump on a plane, you have to make your pitch in person. Because that’s what Lou Lamoriello does.”
The chase of the European free agent all starts from the Maple Leaf end with Paliafito, the Leafs’ Director of Player Evaluation, his name one that is rarely mentioned in hockey circles. His job is to watch available players, find out about them, track them, engage them, do research on them, and meet them, their families and their agents. And then do it all again.
“Jimmy played a huge role in Nikita signing in Toronto,” said Milstein, who took over from Zaitsev’s original agent, Mike Liut. “Jimmy found him, identified him, kept in touch with him regularly.”
“He did everything for me,” said Zaitsev. “He did a huge job to bring me here. He’s an unbelievable guy.”
Said Milstein: “I think people probably underestimate what Jim does for that organization. You don’t hear his name at all. He sets up everything. The Leafs, they do it right. And then for Lou to jump on a plane and close a deal, really, that’s unheard of. Nikita had conversations with maybe 15 teams. Ask me how many GMs jumped on a plane to meet him. The answer: zero. And when a legendary GM and a legendary player does that to meet with you, it tells you how you fit in.”
The emerging Zaitsev, who has since committed long-term in Toronto, is just part, maybe the best part to date, of the Paliafito file. The former NFL player agent and GM of the Ontario Hockey League’s Saginaw Spirit was the key man in the signings of Swedish defencemen Calle Rosen and Andreas Borgman, who have already played significant minutes in their first NHL seasons; one of them will play a regular spot for the time being. He was also central to the signing of centre Miro Aaltonen, who almost made the Leaf team this year out of training camp.
Twice in this young season, the Leafs have played with three of their six defencemen in the lineup from Team Paliafito — all signed while other teams were in pursuit of the same talent.
Lamoriello will tell you bluntly he did not know Paliafito before Mark Hunter hired him to work for the Leafs two years ago. But that’s one of the reasons Lamoriello has so much belief in Hunter, his assistant general manager: He’s hired diamonds like Paliafito and then cashed in on his findings.
“I knew the name,” said Lamoriello of Paliafito. “But I didn’t know the man.
“What I’ve found with Jim is that he’s a quality human being with outstanding communications skills. That’s not something I say easily. Not everybody has good communications skills. When you work in a team environment, that’s really important. He does just about everything for us (in Europe). He has this way about him a trust, and he’s one of the most honest human beings I’ve ever been around.”
There were seven teams interested in Borgman, and three teams interested enough in the end to present serious offers. But the most dogged scout in pursuit of Borgman, from beginning to end, was Paliafito.
“He was the first one that saw me, first one to contact me,” said Borgman. “I think he saw something before anyone else saw something.”
Borgman’s agent, Todd Diamond, who works with Mark Gandler, said the Maple Leafs have a way not just in recruiting free agents, but in helping the players adjust to North America once they’ve signed with the time. Once a team gets that kind of reputation, it spreads from agent to agent, from available player to available player.
“It was a long process with Andreas,” said Diamond. “After every couple of games last season, another team would get interested in him. He started to open people’s eyes as the season continued. The longer the year went, the better he got, the more teams involved.
“Toronto was there early in the process. Andreas was surprised by this. Jim was consistent the whole way in his interest, always in contact with him. When you have someone there from the beginning, that makes a difference.
“There’s another selling point Lou made clear. Whether you play for the Leafs or the Marlies, say you don’t make the Leafs, you’re living in the same city. You don’t have to worry about packing up and moving. It’s one less thing to think about when you’re new to North America, and if you’re in a city like Toronto, when you’re playing for the AHL team, the NHL general manager is watching you all the time. I think that’s a huge advantage for Toronto.”