Reality check on Keith Pelley’s perplexing news conference

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The faster Keith Pelley hires a proven hockey operations boss, the better.

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It would spare us another news conference that underlined his inexperience in real life, real time NHL issues, a state of the union address that left many in a state of confusion.

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In a noble attempt to cover all bases of a newsy Tuesday; firing his general manager — answering for a non-playoff season after his second full year at the helm — the CEO made a formal address, took general questions, then took on a scrum of beat writers.

But the exchange raised more questions than answers, more incongruities than insight.

Let’s look at a few:

PELLEY ON WHAT WENT WRONG THIS SEASON

“I thought I had the right leadership in place. A lot of factors went into this. Without getting into specifics, we didn’t have the alignment, the culture and the structure. You could find a number of issues (such as) injuries. We need to be better and need to adapt quicker.”

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COUNTERPOINT: Pelley set up that alignment by firing president Brendan Shanahan (as he did with Masai Ujiri of the Raptors), taking some of Shanny’s administrative duties, and giving more hockey clout to GM Brad Treliving and head coach Craig Berube, who weren’t on the same page as various crises arose.

All teams have injuries, but not all have the negative dynamics befalling the Leafs. All three men could not arrest passive efforts, system failures, prolonged losing streaks, stubborn lineup decisions, and a leadership void, capped by an underwhelming trade deadline haul.

ON DROPPING TO THE BOTTOM OF THE ATLANTIC DIVISION

“We definitely didn’t see the train coming, which was the Buffalo Sabres and the Montreal Canadiens, how strong those teams are, along with the likes of Detroit, Ottawa and Boston, the re-tooling with Florida and Tampa Bay.

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“Buffalo and Montreal have shown what a young, energetic team they’re going to be for a long time with the prospects they have.”

COUNTERPOINT: ‘You’d think one of Toronto’s SIX ASSISTANT GMs might have said something,” zinged old friend Mark Spector of Sportsnet via ‘X’ about the train analogy.

Not that local media haven’t sounded that warning in recent years as the Maple Leafs foundered in the playoffs. Berube acknowledged the same as most of the aforementioned teams beat the Leafs early in the schedule.

Now those other clubs’ draft picks keep coming of age, while the Leafs pay for trading four of the past seven first-rounders. They also moved on from Mitch Marner as the first of what could be a couple of exits of their vaunted ‘foundational’ players. Oh, and there’s no first-round selections in the cupboard, for at least two of the next three drafts.

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ON GOING DATA-SAVVY WITH THE NEXT HIRE

“They have to be data-centric., really understand the importance of data, and where that’s moving. We have just completed a review of Toronto FC, all its data, combined with cultural checks.

“I strongly believe we don’t use data as well as we need to. That would change. The whole thing with data is everyone has access to it and AI (artificial intelligence). AI is massive, it is changing our business.  It really comes down to how smart you are and how you use it.”

“Every single decision we make will be evidence-based. They’re never wrong.”

COUNTERPOINT: The Leafs had someone on the crest of the analytics wave in assistant and later full-time GM Kyle Dubas. It wasn’t number-crunching that specifically led to his departure, but Dubas’ Leaf legacy is a large research wing headed  by Darryl Metcalf, one of those holding an assistant GM title.

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Pelley overlooked that, while giving lavish praise to Carolina Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky, recognized as the league’s highest qualified data exec at the moment. But not only is Tulsky settled with the Canes, he was an available candidate when Shanahan had to replace Dubas in haste with Treliving.

ON WHAT THE LEAFS STILL HAVE TO BUILD WITH

“We have generational, foundational pieces in 34 (Auston Matthews), 88 (William Nylander), 23 (Matthew Knies) and 91 (John Tavares) and strong goaltending. A lot of positives. We now just have to surround those with better pieces and that will the task of the new director.”

“You can’t pin (past faulures) on the foundational people. To be successful, you need a fully-rounded team. Florida and Tampa Bay are perfect examples. You can’t have one or two superstars and expect to win a Cup.”

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COUNTERPOINT: The Leafs in fact had a Core Four, a once-elite Morgan Rielly on defence and a younger Knies.

But they already bid farewell to malcontent Marner after going through three coaches, two GMs and every attempt make him happy on ice and richly rewarded off of it. Those in charge of personnel never found those ‘better pieces’ with any of the Core Four and after a decade there’s doubt no one ever will.

One day, Marner’s 100 points, Matthews’ Hart Trophy and his Leaf-leading goal records along with whatever Nylander pads his regular season stats could go down as the franchise’s biggest waste of combined talent.

ON WHAT WASN’T WORKING WITH THE ‘ALIGNMENT’ AND ‘CULTURE’ OF THE LEAFS:

“An excellent question — that I’m not going to answer. We didn’t have alignment through all aspects of our business.

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“If you look at all teams, they have certain verticals and (Toronto’s) verticals weren’t horizontally integrated as they needed to be. You can’t then have the right culture.

“I’m not sure how many wins and losses culture represents, but I’ve seen it first-hand with the Raptors and first-hand in the dressing room two weeks ago with TFC (when its MLS season began). It matters.

“You have to have a culture in place where you can have courageous conversations with everybody in the organization and the first reaction is not defensive. How I’ve seen it now, the culture of the other two teams is a little bit different than the Leafs and something we have to address holistically.”

COUNTERPOINT: Remember when TV controls had a vertical and horizontal?

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That made reception hard to co-ordinate and so is this. These were among a few comparisons Pelley optimistically made about the hockey team emulating MLSE’s other franchises. But it’s apples-to-oranges; the Leafs too far down their own road in a much more secular sport and salary cap economic model.

Their ‘DNA’ — a term Treliving popularized — never seemed conducive to the style of hockey required for a long playoff run, especially in clinching game scenarios which he and Berube tried to change.  That will be someone else’s problem, one not easily fixed by clever metaphors.

WHAT IS BERUBE’S STATUS?

“Craig is coach, as determined by the GM or head of hockey operations. His role doesn’t change, other than he will work closer with (interim GMs) Brandon Pridham and Ryan Hardy. Maybe we have a new head of hockey, but something as big as Craig would go all the way to ownership.”

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COUNTERPOINT: This could be moot, because Berube is considered toast already after April 15. But if the new person in charge will have full autonomy on hiring and firing, why would the corporate suits have final say on him or any future coach?

WHAT FORM/TIMELINE WILL THE SEARCH FOR A HOCKEY HONCHO TAKE?

“The No. 1 thing is for us to move as quick as we can into an exhaustive search. You need the right people in place.

“It’s wide open. Nothing is determined. We currently have six assistant GMs. Is that the right structure? What is the right structure?

“Although I’ll be methodical, we have to expedite the process as well. In a perfect world, it’s done by (the NHL draft combine in late May), but certainly as earlier as possible.”

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COUNTERPOINT: We’ll give Pelley some wiggle room here as it’s speculated the decision to cash out Treliving before the season ended was to make fast overtures on the top execs being pursued by other teams.

A search firm is to be consulted, but it’s often an over-rated exercise. If, for example, Doug Armstrong was freed from his St. Louis contract and actually was interested in the Leafs, he would move up a very short list.

The great unknown is whether a big name shakes loose at the end of the regular season, after a quick playoff exit or looks for a new challenge after winning the Cup.

lhornby@postmedia.com

X: @sunhornby

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