while Peddie should share some of the folly, most of the blame can be laid directly at the feet of the pencil necked Larry Tannenbaum, who was finally cut down to size and his power taken away by Rogers/Bell
The Peddie years were constantly undermined by the grinch like LarryT and his power over the board. He vetoed the Gretzky thing by convincing Stavros who was ill and dying that since MLG was already full Gretzky wouldn't sell anymore tickets
Jealous of Peddies apparent popularity at the time(and anybodies for that matter), he was the one that forced JFj to sign McCabe to that then ridiculous contract(as he was chummy with Bryans agent who attended the same synagogue), he was the one that put an end to JFj's vision of a kind of Leafs International developmental and scouting system and over-ruled many other hockey decisions that may have propelled the team forward, he also precipitated the JFj era by ordering the dismantling of the team citing out of control player salaries and then engineered Cliffs firing for his handling of the team The end goal being to set Peddie up into hiring the inexperienced JFj which undermined Quinn's control over player personnel decisions and then making Fergie his pawn. What it got the Leafs were years in the wilderness
Larry T always believed that he was rightful heir to the Leafs majority ownership after Stavros, a right that disappeared when the OTPF bought the controlling interest.
