Leafs GM and Head Coach Jason Taylor was on a conference call with his four assistant coaches: Scotty Bowman, Al Arbour, Craig Patrick and Gerry Cheevers. Taylor was blunt in his question: “Toronto scouting has been inconsistent for some time now… some hits, but a lot of misses. You are both highly connected and know what the job demands. Is there anyone on the Leafs’ scouting staff who you feel should be here?”
After a long pause, Bowman finally chimed in. “Honestly… no”. Arbour also spoke up: “Toronto has been able to draft some very good players, like Clark and Damphousse. But they haven’t drafted a true star since Randy Carlyle (1976) and Lanny McDonald (1973)” Bowman agreed, and pointed to picking Scott Pearson this summer over more highly-regarded players like Jeremy Roenick and Rod Brind’Amour (both of whom went to divisional rivals). Bowman also cited selecting Luke Richardson last year over Joe Sakic, with Sakic now projected to replace Peter Stastny on the Quebec Nordiques’ first line.
Taylor asked Patrick for his assessment, and he agreed; “The current scouting system has really struggled to find talent after the first two rounds, and that is reflected in the shallow talent pool we have in Newmarket.” Cheevers also chimed in: “Ken Wregget and Allan Bester are perfectly fine goalies, but I don’t have confidence that either one is capable of challenging for a Vezina. We have a few options in the AHL and Junior, but there’s this kid at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was never drafted; I’d love to get him on our Newmarket Saints roster.”
Taylor leaned back in his chair, nodded silently to himself, and said “OK. I hired you all here to help guide this franchise, and I’d be a hypocrite now if I didn’t follow your advice. I’ll take care of it.” The call ended, and Taylor took a deep breath before approaching his Executive Assistant.
One by one, each member of the Leafs scouting staff was either called into his office or made available by phone. And one by one they were told that their services are no longer required. After some tears and a LOT of obscenities, it was official: the scouting staff had been completely let go. Including Leafs’ legend The Chief George Armstrong. After a quick break to catch his breath and down his fourth coffee of the day, Taylor began looking at the shortlist prepared by Bowman and Arbour, and began making calls.
Taylor began first with the legendary Sam Pollack, who agreed to do it as a favour to Bowman. Taylor then reached out to some highly-regarded up-and-comers: Mike Penny, Jim Gregory, Elmer Benning. Walter Bush and Markus Cruthers would head up their US scouting staff, while Linus Högberg and wunderkind Hakan Andersson would patrol Western Europe. The impact of these folks would take some time to be felt, but once it was all said and done Taylor had a staff that he believed would help Toronto develop a legitimate pipeline of NHL talent. His next task… the roster.