Who is your choice for the GM position?

[ObscureAlien]

Not Hunter's fault he built an elite junior hockey program in a short few years that wasn't assisted by previous NCAA commits in the early years. The NCAA commits who changed their mind in the roughly 2007 - present timeframe (Kane (although I'm not sure if he was an official commit), Harrington, Domi, Marner, Mete, etc.) were after the Knights had already established themselves as arguably being the premier junior hockey destination in the country. Yes you can argue that the Hunter's salaries from their NHL days assisted with establishing their scouting network, however the fact that the Hunter's earned their wealth on their own merits should not be held against them. Furthermore, London has never been officially sanctioned by the CHL for practices involving recruiting players that are against the rules and the spirit of fair play. Therefore, we must conclude that the Hunter's success of building the London Knights into a perennial powerhouse was due to the fact of Mark's ability to identify raw talent and Dale's ability to develop said talent into pro players, not their wealth that they had EARNED.

 

[Al14]

My choice for the open G.M. position with our Leafs is ...

Whomever Shanahan choses! Be it Dubus, Hunter, or another worthy candidate!

 

[Peasy]

Not Hunter's fault he built an elite junior hockey program in a short few years that wasn't assisted by previous NCAA commits in the early years. The NCAA commits who changed their mind in the roughly 2007 - present timeframe (Kane (although I'm not sure if he was an official commit), Harrington, Domi, Marner, Mete, etc.) were after the Knights had already established themselves as arguably being the premier junior hockey destination in the country. Yes you can argue that the Hunter's salaries from their NHL days assisted with establishing their scouting network, however the fact that the Hunter's earned their wealth on their own merits should not be held against them. Furthermore, London has never been officially sanctioned by the CHL for practices involving recruiting players that are against the rules and the spirit of fair play. Therefore, we must conclude that the Hunter's success of building the London Knights into a perennial powerhouse was due to the fact of Mark's ability to identify raw talent and Dale's ability to develop said talent into pro players, not their wealth that they had EARNED.

And people said the same thing about Portland.

The thing is, in the NHL you dont have the luxury of top talent requesting to only play for your team, which has benefited London greatly the past decade.

A lot of the top talent that has come out of London were identified as top talent way before London had anything to do with them.

 

[Pucker77]

London has an absurd amount of advantages and money that other OHL clubs don't even come close to sniffing that attracts several imports, as well as locals that will refuse to play for other clubs.

That doesn't occur in the NHL.

Players can't say, hey I'm going to the X league unless the Leafs draft me in the NHL like players would in junior.

Just comparing their junior resumes to make a decision is ludicrous.

Not just that, but in Doug Gilmour's biography "Killer" he talks about when he became the GM for Kingston and that he was good friends with Tie Domi. In the OHL Draft Gilmour selected Max but Tie got very upset because he wanted Max to go to London. So after constant nagging, Gilmour traded Max to London.

I doubt a lot of players do that for the Soo.

But nonetheless, if the Leafs announced Hunter as the GM I would have been fine. I just preferred the new school approach of Dubas after years of tutelage under Lou and alongside Hunter. I believe Dubas offers another element that Hunter would not have, but I could easily be wrong on that.

 

[member 300185]

Then why don't we let him keep scouting? Why does everyone think that "knowing talent" translates perfectly to "managing an entire sports organization".

He would be managing the Leafs....not CEO of Walmart.