Brian McCabe
- Thread starter riff raff
- Start date
Highlander
Well-known member
They might not need a "can opener" as everything has a pop top these days. McCabe should go play in the KHL
I'm a little surprised Florida didn't bring him back. He would have certainly come at a cheaper price than Jovanovski, and it can probably be debated he's a better player too. Then again, it's obviously impossible to rationalize the decisions the Panthers made this summer.
GhostofPotvin29
New member
Thought this was nice:
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/blogs/elliottefriedman/2011/09/sept19.html
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/blogs/elliottefriedman/2011/09/sept19.html
Potvin29 said:
You know what, I think thats kind of untrue that he's not remembered fondly. He had his fair share of issues and we knew it was time to rebuild during 06/07 but he was one hell of an offensive defenseman while here. McCabe/Kaberle was a lethal combo. The Leafs showed +/- leaders all time on the jumbotron tonight: McCabe was one of them, and he was given lots of cheers!
L K
Well-known member
Bender said:
He did, but I'm going to disagree that he is remembered fondly. Public opinion of McCabe changed when an extremely irresponsible reporter started writing a bunch of stories about how McCabe didn't want to sign with Toronto and how his "evil" wife was probably behind it. It culminated when McCabe had to give an interview from his front porch. Most know that there was a pretty legitimate reason relating to his wife that was going on but the smear/hack campaign from a "journalist" changed how McCabe was received IMO.
L K said:
Oh yeah, for sure when he was on his way out he was reviled kinda pointlessly. But I think that sentiment has been forgotten to some degree. I mean, I was surprised I didn't hear any boos when they put his picture up on the jumbotron for being a top 10 +/- leader. He had the second loudest cheer next to Sundin on the list.
Leafaholic99
New member
He still hasn't found a team yet? Not even a tryout for the pre-season?
I guess at 36 years old, in today's NHL that is close to retirement now, unless you're super human like Chelios, Selanne, etc.
I wonder what he is asking on a contract.
I guess at 36 years old, in today's NHL that is close to retirement now, unless you're super human like Chelios, Selanne, etc.
I wonder what he is asking on a contract.
Highlander
Well-known member
He is asking for a can opener and another own goal
Palmateer29
Member
Personally I thought Fergie should have said you have until the day before the trade deadline to resign a deal or we are going to have to trade you. That would have brought in some prospects and saved him for the huge overpay, the moronic No Movement Clause and traded him away while his value was at it's highest.
I didn't have a huge problem with McCabe just the contract and the NMC that Fergie had to give him by letting him go onto the open market.
I didn't have a huge problem with McCabe just the contract and the NMC that Fergie had to give him by letting him go onto the open market.
Kin
Active member
Palmateer29 said:
With all due respect, that's a pretty big combination of unrealistic hindsight and armchair quarterbacking. The NMC was something that McCabe was insisting on in order to re-sign. The money was not a drastic overpay considering the season McCabe was having.
So what you're saying is that with your team in the thick of a playoff hunt, you'd have had the foresight and faith in your job security to risk that playoff berth by trading away one of the team's best players for prospects at the deadline.
Saint Nik said:
I know I advocated trading him, Kaberle, Tucker, etc starting before the deadline of Feb/March 2006. The team was constructed wrong for the new rules - not enough speed. Belfour was effectively done. Though still effective on the stats sheet, Tucker's body was worn out for all those seasons of playing bigger than he was. Kaberle was at peak value. It was a prime time because of the quality of assets that could have been returned for them. Teams were moving 1st rounders back then quite freely as not all had caught on to the implications of cap.
But unlike JFJ, my job wasn't on the line. But if I'd been GM, they would either go along with me or I'd move on. If ownership won't buy into your vision as GM, you're just a puppet and aren't going to win anything anyway.
Kin
Active member
cw said:
I'm more or less there. I also advocated selling at that deadline. They could have done really well by committing to a full-on rebuild.
But, and again we agree here, it's really easy to say when it's not our first crack at a NHL GM's job. Ferguson, I think it's safe to say, was expected to be competitive. Sure, you can say that by following that game plan he was dooming himself to failure and that we'd quit a job that didn't allow us to have the authority we'd want to do the job correctly but that's still a lot of money to walk away from. So it's not something I'm entirely comfortable with saying I'd have been able to be entirely principled about.
Saint Nik said:
I would have dealt with that issue before I got hired so there's a reasonable chance a person like me wouldn't have got the job with a guy like Peddie. I guarantee Burke had that conversation but Brian had the credentials to survive that conversation while Richard had another GM failure on his hands. Burke was in a better position to get that.
But once JFJ was hired, Peddie would have had quite a personal PR issue if JRJ walked over that issue. I think JFJ could have called Richard's bluff. Peddie's a marketing oriented executive - he doesn't like messes in the media. Big executive search by Peddie results in new GM taking a hike because MLSE won't stop meddling in his hockey affairs? That would not play well in the media for Richard no matter how he tried to spin it and Richard would realize that. Behind closed doors, it would have tightened the noose on JFJ because Richard would have the knife out faster for when he messed up. That's my guess on how it would have played out.
The problem JFJ had was that he committed to Richard's plan of getting them back to the playoffs, etc rather than a plan with a top priority focused on building a Cup winner.
Kin
Active member
cw said:
I've never put a lot of stock into the idea that JFJ's failings were all that attributable to Peddie or the vision Peddie had for the team. I think JFJ came into the job with most of the same goals and responsibilities Burke has. The problem with JFJ wasn't that he tried to build while competing, it's that he failed at it. His draft picks didn't yield quick enough results, his free agents never lived up to their contracts. Burke's been similar, I think, in outlook but more successful in execution.
I think the idea that JFJ could have "called his bluff" is another area where we're not really speaking from familiarity of the way NHL jobs work. Failure, it seems, isn't a terrible impediment to getting another job in the league. Disobedience probably is, as the guys who get one shot and then are out of the league for long stretches seem to be the guys who are around internal feuds. I'm sure JFJ wanted to work in the NHL again and so a staredown with Peddie was not high on his list of goals, even if he did come to the realization that his way of running the team wasn't working.
If this seems like I'm defending JFJ, I'm not. His plan was lousy. His execution was lousy. He deserved to be fired long before he was. All I'm saying is that a lot of his mistakes can probably be attributed to wanting to get his job/keep his job/get a new job when it was over. I'm reluctant to criticize him too much for that.