Hockey Night in Canada's Scott Morrison delivers his insights into the world of hockey, on and off the ice.
Jim Rutherford would be a perfect fit for the Leafs
Comments (12)
Friday, October 26, 2007 | 11:04 AM ET
By Scott Morrison
On the heels of a somewhat impressive win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night, John Ferguson, the beleaguered general manager of the Maple Leafs, was given a whopping 48 hours of relief before his employment status again becomes the most important story in Toronto.
Imagine, the civic blunderers have already agreed to raise a couple of taxes and now are threatening to gouge further - with an increased tax on booze, for gawd sake - and Ferguson's employment is still the big issue in town, just 11 games into a new, though frustrating, season. Go figure.
Anyway, a ton of names have been offered up as potential replacements for Ferguson - if it should happen that he's relieved of his duties one day - but none have hit on the one that might be the best.
Now, sorry to be cavalier with Ferguson's job status - what he endures can never be easy - but if folks are going to speculate as to who should be the next one, it's worth offering a suggestion.
Now, the likes of Detroit GM Ken Holland, or his assistant Jim Nill, or Hockey Canada's Bob Nicholson, or former Flames GM Craig Button, or NHL veep Colin Campbell, or several other suggested candidates, including Neil Smith, are all good choices.
But what about Jimmy Rutherford?
OK, he has a job as general manager of the Carolina Hurricanes, who won the Stanley Cup a couple of seasons ago. But in the world of high finance anything is possible. Money talks and the Leafs have plenty of it.
Rutherford would be a perfect fit in Toronto. He played in Toronto and understands how dreadful the teams have been and how horrible the drought has become. He has built a finalist and a champion in Carolina on a limited budget. He has drafted well, shopped well on the free-agent market, built an excellent organization, doesn't panic and is media savvy. You may have noticed his team is pretty darn good again this year, despite injuries.
He also has a terrific sense of humour, especially when it is needed most. Rutherford is credited with this line, many, many years ago when he was playing for the dreadful Red Wings, at the time 40 points or so out of a playoff position:
Reporter: "How do you guys stay motivated when you are so far behind this late in the season?"
Rutherford: "We have a game in hand."
In short, he has everything the Leafs would need, the ability to be a president and general manager, to build a solid organization and win.
Now, why would Carolina let him go? Good question. They might not. Although owner Peter Karmanos, who has been tight with Rutherford for many years, might allow him to chase the challenge. Carolina, after all, is in good shape. The team is solid again, the organization is solid again and they have Ron Francis, an icon in the area, poised to take over as general manager. Maybe they just make the switch a little earlier than planned and are suitably compensated.
All of that, of course, is predicated on John Ferguson losing his job in Toronto. A few more nights like the one in Pittsburgh and all the conjecture will go away. For a while, at least.
Of course, Rutherford would get a say in this, too, and he might not be interested. Did we mention he's a bright guy?
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Scott Morrison, the recipient of the Hockey Hall of Fameís 2006 Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award, has been covering hockey for 25 years. The Toronto native began his career at the Toronto Sun in 1979. After spending more than 11 years as a hockey writer and columnist at the paper, Morrison became Sports Editor in 1991 and led the section to being named one of North America's top-ten sports sections in 1999 - the first sports section in Canada to receive the AP Sports Editors North American Award. Scott, a former two-term president of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association, joined Rogers Sportsnet in 2001 as Managing Editor, Hockey, and is currently both a commentator on Hockey Night in Canada and a columnist for CBC.ca.
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Comments (12)
buds fan
i think a former player should take over
Dougie
Wendel
Darryl
Frank
Posted November 13, 2007 04:59 PM
BChandler
Burnaby
I doubt Jim Rutherford would want to come and work for MLSE and that's the real problem. Scott Bowman turned us down and anybody who truly knows their stuff won't work here because of the people who run it. God himself couldn't work miracles with this bunch as long as the people running it are only interested in the bottom line and not in winning
Posted October 30, 2007 10:21 AM
Pat Boreich
Toronto
Anybody would be better than John Ferguson Jr what a mess he has made. Young and old players.... but not the right old ones. I love Tucker and McCabe but....
Posted October 28, 2007 03:02 PM
Remi
It would be great if Rutherford would come to Toronto.He knows what a general manager has to do to have a good team.Toronto has to get rid of Ferguson soon before he makes more stupid player moves.
Posted October 27, 2007 01:58 PM
unbiased hockey fan
Canada
Some tell morrisson that there are 29 other teams to write about.
Posted October 27, 2007 10:43 AM
P. Reilly
Like so many die-hard fans we are starting to loose interest in a team that emplodes in the last 20 min of play...hello it's 60 min long. I agree the problem is more then JFJ, it goes to the VERY silent ownership. Time to make them poor and stop buying the tickets people.......
Posted October 26, 2007 08:35 PM
JK
I hear Pat Quinn is looking for a job.
Posted October 26, 2007 04:03 PM
Lindsay
Calgary,Oilberta
Problem with all of this is that it makes sense.
This goes against Maple Leave philosophy. Hiring
Rutherford might actually be an indication
that the team is in pursuit of excellence .
More likely that they would bring Quinn back .
No need to do anything if home games are still
sold out. The best thing that could happen to
Toronto would be a team coming on in Hamilton.
Posted October 26, 2007 03:30 PM
Shane
Renfrew
Rutherford isn't going to work in Toronto. Just because your dumb GM has run your team into the ground don't start thinking you can take ours.
Posted October 26, 2007 01:57 PM
Nathan
Raleigh
Hands off Toronto. JR is ours. We gave you Mo, so be happy with that.
Posted October 26, 2007 01:34 PM
Randy
Ottawa
Hey Scott, Rutherford would be a good fit, but I think he would be too smart to take the job. Too much politics when dealing with MLSE. They would never let him do what needs to be done.
Also, it looks to me like no other team was affected as much by the salary cap as the Leafs were, they were always trying to buy a Stanley Cup (like the NYR) instead of building a winner. Now because of the cap, they have to look at how they draft and develop players instead of just buying them from somewhere else.
MLSE should have thought of that before the cap came in, they knew it was coming. They should have made changes long ago.
This is how Ottawa has been built and it's a strategy that is paying off for them now, something which they were forced to do because they will never have the money the Leafs do. We had some pretty lean years at the beginning but it looks like the Senators have the organization to be a contender for a long time to come.
Posted October 26, 2007 01:05 PM
Randy
Ottawa
Hey Scott, Rutherford would be a good fit, but I think he would be too smart to take the job. Too much politics when dealing with MLSE. They would never let him do what needs to be done.
Also, it looks to me like no other team was affected as much by the salary cap as the Leafs were, they were always trying to buy a Stanley Cup (like the NYR) instead of building a winner. Now because of the cap, they have to look at how they draft and develop players instead of just buying them from somewhere else.
MLSE should have thought of that before the cap came in, they knew it was coming. They should have made changes long ago.
This is how Ottawa has been built and it's a strategy that is paying off for them now, something which they were forced to do because they will never have the money the Leafs do. We had some pretty lean years at the beginning but it looks like the Senators have the organization to be a contender for a long time to come.
Posted October 26, 2007 01:05 PM