Pat Quinn vs. Paul Maurice & John Ferguson Jr.
January 10th, 2008 Posted in LeafsNews.com | 
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I have to shake my head when I watch writers like Damien Cox, Steve Simmons and others talk about how bad the Toronto Maple Leafs have been for so long. I don’t remember that. I remember the opposite, actually.
You see, when Pat Quinn was brought in to fix the Leafs, he did. He made a huge impact. If you remember, it was a similar circumstance to this predicament we are in right now. The Maple Leafs did not make it to the post season in 1996. Quinn was brought in during the 1997-1998 season.
From Wikipedia:
“In that year he moved to Toronto to become head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He assumed the additional duties of general manager a few months later, reportedly because he and Leafs President Ken Dryden did not get along. In his first season as coach the Maple Leafs’ record improved dramatically. As a result of Quinn’s coaching the Leafs reached the conference finals but lost to the Buffalo Sabres. Pat Quinn was again runner-up for the Jack Adams Award. Under Quinn, the Toronto Maple Leafs had consistently been contenders, but were never able to reach the Stanley Cup finals during his tenure. Quinn’s best results were making the Eastern Conference finals in 1999 and 2002.
On April 20, 2006, Quinn was let go along with the Maple Leafs assistant coach and former teammate Rick Ley. Neither were offered another position within the organization. Quinn was dismissed because the Leafs had narrowly failed to reach the playoffs, though others criticized Ferguson’s signings, all of which had little impact in the Leaf’s late season run to secure a postseason berth. Toronto Marlies coach Paul Maurice was announced as Quinn’s successor as coach of the Maple Leafs. Quinn gave his final low-key goodbyes to the Maple Leaf franchise on Thursday, April 27, 2006 in a written statement.
Quinn was the winningest active coach in the NHL and 4th all time with 616 wins and is recognized by the hockey community as one of the top coaches of the NHL. Quinn’s NHL coaching record includes 11 first round playoff wins in 16 seasons. An astounding winning percentage of 69%, surpassed only by coaching legend Scotty Bowman, 71%, and ahead of New York Islanders legend Al Arbour, 66%.”
Apologies for the Wikipedia page being the first reference.
From NHL.com:
“In his first season as head coach Pat Quinn guided the 1998-99 Maple Leafs to a prosperous regular season and an exciting playoff run - the Leafs’ first postseason appearance since 1996 and third final four appearance of the 1990’s. In the 2002 campaign, Quinn once again made it to the Conference Finals, where the Leafs took on and lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in six games. Under Quinn’s leadership the Leafs set new club records in overall wins with 45 and road wins with 22.
The 1998-99 Leafs accumulated 97 points under Quinn - a 28-point improvement from the previous season - which culminated with him being named runner-up for the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s Coach of the Year. On July 14, 1999, Quinn added the responsibilities of general manager for the hockey club. At the time of the announcement he became the only individual to hold the dual role in the NHL. Quinn joins former Leaf Punch Imlach as being the only Leafs to dually manage the head coach and general manager duties.”
I get a little upset when I hear that The Leafs have not been that successful over the last few years. This is not a Pat Quinn legacy, but a John Ferguson Jr. legacy. Prior to JFJ taking the reins, between 1998 and 2004:
1. The Toronto Maple Leafs had the most wins during that time period, in the regular season. Pat Quinn had the best coaching record, naturally.
2. The Toronto Maple Leafs had the most post season visits and won the most rounds of any NHL club.
Pat Quinn should not be lumped in together with JFJ and Paul Maurice. He was successful. Very successful. Granted, he had one of the highest payrolls during that time, but good use was made of it and the other teams with the same budget did much less than Toronto did.
The John Ferguson Jr. experiment is over and I think we can safely say that Paul Maurice is a good coach and helps to get the players prepared much better than they were before. I am not sure he is the right man to be coaching this team, however.
I am not sure we got rid of the right person in the first place.
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January 10th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Here, here. JFJ sucks! Paul Maurice seems like a good guy, but he is not getting the job done with “The best team he has ever coached”. Lets go, get rid of these wankers.