Stephen
Moderator
- Feb 28, 2002
- 79,565
- 55,427
The recent Alex Steen retirement brought me back to thinking about Cliff Fletcher. For all the good and excitement he brought to Toronto in between 1992-1996 and the reputation for being a shrewd wheeler and dealer that brought us so many names like Gilmour, Sundin, Andreychuk, Fuhr in various blockbuster trade, I can't help but look at his whole body of work as some of the most disastrous management regime we have ever seen in modern Leafs history post Harold Ballard.
Sure, JFJ and Burke received their fair share of criticism for the Rask/Raycroft, Kessel trades which set us back years and Pat Quinn never really planned for a post lockout/salary cap world, but the amount of damage Cliff Fletcher did to the Leafs cannot be understated.
The Panic Buy of 1996:
Kenny Jonsson, the 1997 first round pick (Roberto Luongo), Sean Haggerty, Darby Hendrickson - for Wendel Clark, Mathieu Schneider and DJ Smith. Basically undid all the gains from the Mats Sundin trade in 1994 and took two franchise cornerstones out of the equation.
The Panic Sell off of 1996-97, when Steve Stavro slashed budget over night which resulted in the trading of still valuable assets for nothing:
Doug Gilmour and Dave Ellett - traded for Steve Sullivan, Alyn McCauley and Jason Smith. Probably a substandard return for Killer to begin with given the lack of picks in return, but made worse by mismanagement down the road.
Mike Gartner - traded for a 4th round pick.
Dave Andreychuk - traded for a third round pick.
Dave Gagner - traded for a third round pick.
Larry Murphy - traded for nothing.
Kirk Muller - traded for Jason Podollan.
Todd Gill - traded for a 5th round pick and Jamie Baker.
The Dismantling of the Muskoka Five 2008-09:
Alex Steen and Carlo Colaiacovo - traded for Lee Stempinak
Bryan McCabe with a 4th round pick! - traded for Mike Van Ryn
Pavel Kubina - traded for Garnett Exelby and Colin Stuart
Darcy Tucker - bought out.
To summarize, it's just insane how little return the Leafs got from the dismantling of two core groups at the hands of one GM over the course of two decades. The first go round was bad enough, but the second was just awful and unnecessary. I feel like we are looking at this history from a safe distance with a young team poised to do great things, but if you ever wonder why it took so long to get here, I think one man deserves more blame than all the rest.
Sure, JFJ and Burke received their fair share of criticism for the Rask/Raycroft, Kessel trades which set us back years and Pat Quinn never really planned for a post lockout/salary cap world, but the amount of damage Cliff Fletcher did to the Leafs cannot be understated.
The Panic Buy of 1996:
Kenny Jonsson, the 1997 first round pick (Roberto Luongo), Sean Haggerty, Darby Hendrickson - for Wendel Clark, Mathieu Schneider and DJ Smith. Basically undid all the gains from the Mats Sundin trade in 1994 and took two franchise cornerstones out of the equation.
The Panic Sell off of 1996-97, when Steve Stavro slashed budget over night which resulted in the trading of still valuable assets for nothing:
Doug Gilmour and Dave Ellett - traded for Steve Sullivan, Alyn McCauley and Jason Smith. Probably a substandard return for Killer to begin with given the lack of picks in return, but made worse by mismanagement down the road.
Mike Gartner - traded for a 4th round pick.
Dave Andreychuk - traded for a third round pick.
Dave Gagner - traded for a third round pick.
Larry Murphy - traded for nothing.
Kirk Muller - traded for Jason Podollan.
Todd Gill - traded for a 5th round pick and Jamie Baker.
The Dismantling of the Muskoka Five 2008-09:
Alex Steen and Carlo Colaiacovo - traded for Lee Stempinak
Bryan McCabe with a 4th round pick! - traded for Mike Van Ryn
Pavel Kubina - traded for Garnett Exelby and Colin Stuart
Darcy Tucker - bought out.
To summarize, it's just insane how little return the Leafs got from the dismantling of two core groups at the hands of one GM over the course of two decades. The first go round was bad enough, but the second was just awful and unnecessary. I feel like we are looking at this history from a safe distance with a young team poised to do great things, but if you ever wonder why it took so long to get here, I think one man deserves more blame than all the rest.