Mccrimmon’s ability to win is impressive
Year after year, he’s the smartest GM in the game
When Brendan Shanahan was hired to run the Toronto Maple Leafs 10 years ago, he made a determination to reach out to the “smartest” people in junior hockey to begin building his organization.
It wasn’t the usual approach to front office recruiting in the NHL.
He reached out to Kyle Dubas in Sault Ste. Marie and hired him in 2014. He identified Mark Hunter in London and hired him three months later. Twice, he tried to hire Kelly Mccrimmon from the Brandon Wheat Kings — once by himself, and once with Lou Lamoriello involved — but both times he came up empty.
What a swing and a miss that turned out long term for the Leafs. After an unhappy ending in Toronto, Hunter has returned happily to London and the junior dynasty that is the Knights. Dubas, who was the chosen one as general manager, is about to miss the playoffs in his first season with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Mccrimmon is the Bill Torrey-glen Sather-harry Sinden of his day, the smartest, brightest, most accomplished general manager in all of hockey with the Vegas Golden Knights and he seems to be proving that year after year.
Vegas is the defending Stanley Cup champion. It won last year’s trade deadline, bringing in Ivan Barbashev for somebody named Zach Dean. It won the summer trade market in 2022, sending a fourth-round pick to San Jose for goaltender Adin Hill.
Last season, Mccrimmon traded for Jack Eichel, who had lost his way in Buffalo. In recent days, all Mccrimmon and his staff did was manage to acquire the best scorer available, Tomas Hertl, the best defenceman available, Noah Hanifin, and a solid depth scorer in Anthony Mantha.
All this coming after the Cup win last season, and the brilliant work prior — putting the Vegas expansion team on the map, followed by the free agent signing of big time defenceman Alex Pietrangelo and the trading for captain Mark Stone.
The work that elevated Mccrimmon to general manager has become the envy of everyone in hockey. He has an owner in Bill Foley who pushes winning over all else.
Years ago, through the help of Dave Branch and others in junior hockey, Shanahan identified the right people for the building Maple Leafs front office. He just came up short on hiring the smartest of them all.
I have a list of nine teams that can win the Stanley Cup. The number goes to 10 if you include the Winnipeg Jets.
In my order, the Stanley Cup will be won by one of: Florida Panthers; Colorado Avalanche; Carolina Hurricanes; Dallas Stars; Vancouver Canucks; Vegas; Edmonton Oilers; Boston Bruins; and New York Rangers. Then Winnipeg. Then Tampa Bay. That’s 11. That puts the
Leafs at No. 12 among Stanley Cup contenders.
And the reason I rank Tampa ahead of Toronto, despite the standings: They still have Andrei Vasilevskiy in goal, Victor Hedman on defence, big gamer Nikita Kucherov up front and Jon Cooper coaching.
By comparison, the Leafs have “I don’t know” in goal, Morgan Rielly as their best defenceman, Auston Matthews up front (most playoff goals in a season, five), and Sheldon Keefe coaching.
Playoff teams that can’t win the Cup: Nashville, Detroit, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.
Shanahan likes to say he wants to be one of the “eight or so” teams that make the playoffs with a shot at winning the Cup.
This season, they will make the playoffs.
A former accomplished GM on the Leafs: “I don’t see how you can win long term in the playoffs with that defence and that goaltending. Too much guessing, I think.”
Not sure where the Sidney Crosby almost frozen, emotional response to Jake Guentzel getting traded came from.
Crosby has had an incredible season. The Penguins have not.
It was obvious for months that Pittsburgh was trading Guentzel.
It’s now pretty much obvious the Penguins won’t be in the post-season.
Maybe reality just caught up with Crosby — as athletes tend to be the last people to often live in the real world.
We take Connor Mcdavid for granted. He now has 100 points for the seventh time in a nine-year career. That’s one more 100-point season than Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Guy Lafleur, Steve Yzerman, Joe Sakic, Bryan Trottier, Crosby, Dale Hawerchuk and Jari Kurri all managed. That ties him with Mike Bossy at seven.
The only two seasons Mcdavid didn’t hit 100 — the shortened season of 2020 and his rookie year, in which he missed 37 games to injury.
Next year, he should catch Marcel Dionne at eight.
What you need most seasons to win the Stanley Cup: 1) Goaltending; 2) Quality coaching; 3) A Norris type defenceman; 4) Depth at centre.
It’s a short list of teams that meet all four criteria: the Rangers; Dallas; Vancouver; Vegas; Winnipeg; Tampa.
Carolina, Edmonton, Colorado, Florida (in spite of depth everywhere) don’t fit all categories.
The most overrated trade pieces in hockey: First- and second-round picks in the second half of the round. An early first-round pick is money. A late first round pick — after 20th — is a guess.
Too many teams and too many fan bases, Calgary being the latest, get all excited by accumulating picks.
From 2010 to 2019, a 10-year look at the draft, fewer than 10 stars were drafted in the second half of the first round.
You have three times the chance of getting a bust with a late first round pick than you do getting a first line player.