Photo Credit: Maple Leafs Hotstove, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
The Shanaplan
The Toronto Maple Leafs President Of Hockey Operations, Brendan Shanahan, has been employed by the organization since April 2014, when the team was really, really, bad and change was desperately needed.
When the Toronto Maple Leafs hired Shanahan, much ado was made about the Shanaplan, a scorched earth policy that was going to convert the team from basement dwelling losers into a group of winners who would contend for the cup every year.
The Shanaplan: To build a perennial Stanley Cup contender through drafting and development of key roster players, low risk trades, and eschewing of big name, big money, UFA acquisitions.
Shanahan sold his Shanaplan to a vulnerable Leafs Nation. The fans, desperate for a change, any change, bought into it wholeheartedly. We believed him when he told us it was going to be different this time.
Fools that we are.
Shanahan promised the fans the team would be built internally. A draft and develop model. A slow process that would ensure perennial success.
And we believed him.
Whatever Became Of The Shanaplan?
Shanahan was brought in to break the sense of entitlement that had set in among the previous group of players.
The Blue'n'White disease was roaring it's head and the players had taken control of the locker room. Shanahan hired Lou Lamoriello and Mike Babcock to manage and coach the team, respectively. Strict disciplinarians, these two were tasked to break the rock star nightclub attitude the players brought to the rink every night.
They succeeded admirably.
The Lamoriello and Babcock years saw the team make magnificent strides early on. After drafting Matthews, the team made the playoffs and achieved record breaking regular season success.
The Leafs were ahead of schedule.
So much so that when Lou's contract came up for renewal, Shanahan fired him and promoted Dubas. He was probably thinking any moron could ride that team to a Stanley Cup in a matter of a few years.
Boy was he ever wrong.
Dubas, in a clear cut case of premature evaluation, then signed Tavares, instantly changing the team from rebuild to "win-at-all-costs" mode overnight.
Picks and prospects were traded every year to bring in aging and declining vets such as Muzzin, Foligno, and Giordano. With a straight face Shanahan told us that was the plan all along.
Now we don't believe him anymore.
There Was No Shanaplan
That was a myth thrust upon Leafs Nation with the intent to befuddled us all into believing things would be different this time.
The only plan these guys had, if there ever was one to begin with, was to tank the team and use their premium picks to draft elite talent that would form the nucleus of the team. Hardly original.
And hardly even a plan at all.
After that, there was no plan. It was a "fly by the seat of their pants" approach. The first whiff of the playoffs and anything resembling a so-called Shanaplan was abandoned.
For whatever the hell mess this is Dubas has put the team into.
Time and again the fans have witnessed new management come in, tear down the roster, preach patience, and then immediately sell out the farm in attempt to win a cup.
Somethings never change.
Different president. Different GM. Different coach. Different players.
Same old team.
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