Me call Richard Peddie a liar? Not on your Nellie. Just passing along something someone whispered into my shell-like appendage.
Nevertheless, Campbell and his GM aspirations were a hot topic Wednesday morning around the Toronto Maple Leafs-Tampa Bay Lightning game-day skates.
Leaf broadcaster Harry Neale had the best line: “He probably figures working for one owner beats working for 30.”
Eric is right in that gossip around the league has always had Campbell with his eye on the GM post in either Toronto or Ottawa. However, there is no guarantee he would be a candidate in Toronto, even if John Ferguson is not offered a contract extension.
At this point, it would be pretty hard for either Peddie, the president of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment or MLSE chairman Larry Tanenbaum to sell the board of directors on dumping Ferguson. The team is not a sure-fire Cup contender by any means but it is doing well now that the large shadow of Pat Quinn is gone and Ferguson can finally put his own stamp on the team.
However, MLSE office politics rival those of a banana republic. There are many people whispering in Tanenbaum’s ear, one of whom is a certain former player whose extra-curricular activities have been in the news recently.
Who knows what the various courtiers have been telling Tanenbaum? But getting rid of Ferguson may be difficult. First, as noted, the team is doing well and should get better when Pavel Kubina gets back in the lineup. Second, Ferguson is Peddie’s discovery, so he may not be inclined to go along with a corporate knifing.
Tanenbaum’s problem is that he is not the majority owner of MLSE. The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board is, and Peddie is thought to control its votes.
Now, I would not feel comfortable if my career rested in Peddie’s hands when things were rocky, but that’s just me. As long as the team is doing okay, Fergie should be okay.
As for the Flyers, those in the know say owner Ed Snider is determined a complete change of the Flyer culture is in order. That’s why he offered the job to an outsider like Campbell and why Paul Holmgren, assistant GM to Bob Clarke when he quit as Flyer GM, will not move beyond interim GM. It’s also why the job will not be offered to former goaltender Ron Hextall, currently a Flyer scout.
Neale is right about Campbell’s current job, senior executive vice-president and director of hockey operations. It is a thankless one. Both he and his predecessor Brian Burke, for whom the position was created, often regarded it as a sentence, not a job.
As the NHL’s man in charge of the on-ice product, Campbell has spent eight years being assailed from all sides – owners, coaches, managers, players and media – for his decisions on everything from suspensions to obstruction.
Hockey people have long maintained that Campbell has made it clear to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman that he has done his time and would like to move into team management like Burke did. Unlike Burke, though, Campbell’s only experience at the team level has been as a player and coach, not a GM.
Bettman is said to be pushing Campbell hard among the owners, along with his deputy, Mike Murphy, as candidates for any GM openings. But it should be noted that if Campbell gets a GM job, Murphy will likely be promoted to his old job, since Bettman will need someone in the post who knows the job well.
