JFJ gets cut loose

I'm not a John Ferguson Jr. fan by any stretch. In fact, I've found the epic failures of the Toronto Maple Leafs quite amusing. To get an idea of where I'm comin' from: a Leafs loss is just as good as a Sens win (of course, these days, the Leafs are expected to lose). But the latest debacle in The Big Smoke has to be one of the biggest management blunders in the history of the NHL. Not only did Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (aka, the doorknob Richard Peddie) publicly admit they had made a mistake by hiring JFJ, but they openly searched for his replacement...while he was still the GM! You gotta feel for him. Of course, he's brought it on himself. He can recognize talent, but he has built a brutal history of signing average hockey players to ridiculous contracts. $6 mill for Bryan McCabe?! How 'bout Pavel Kubina who makes $5 million...Darcy Tucker somehow scammed his way into a $3.5 mill per year deal. I could go on...

What many people fail to recognize is the fact that he was brought in with NO experience. Not only did have a lousy resume, but he was thrown into the fire we call the Toronto media. MLSE's management strategy has been exposed and everyone now knows that JFJ had no choice in signing those players. He was essentially a puppet to the boys at the top. For the Leafs to ever regain any kind respect in the NHL, they need to clear out all of the idiots who have driven their team into a bottom-feeding disaster and not hire Cliff Fletcher, a GM they fired a decade ago for being useless. But hey, as long as they're making millions of dollars from ignorant Leaf fans who keep showin' up, all is well.