Don Granato would switch Leafs to a more exciting brand of hockey: Leafs Morning Take
The end of the NHL regular season is dragging, especially in Toronto.
Honestly, it’s felt like a three month death march. And, of course, the cherry on top is that they’re not tanking, which will likely lead to them surrendering their first rounder to the Boston Bruins in June. Great stuff.
That’s where the conversation started on the Wednesday edition of Leafs Morning Take as David Pagnotta filled in for Jay Rosehill. The organization still lacks major leadership and direction. This year’s been an unmitigated disaster.
In case you missed it, the Leafs are catching some heat right now for bringing in Neil Glasberg and The Coaches Agency to run their front-office search. The big issue? Glasberg also represents some of the candidates, which is raising a ton of eyebrows around the league. There’s a real concern this thing could be steered toward his own clients — including one of the reported frontrunners for the position, Sunny Mehta. Pagnotta hit on all that and the ongoing search. We did discuss Steve Yzerman’s briefly, but at this point, Pagnotta would be shocked if Detroit axes him.
Meantime, could this be Alex Ovechkin’s final game in Toronto? He certainly didn’t dispel the idea of this being his final NHL season in an interview with Caps play by play voice John Walton. Ovechkin said he won’t make a decision on his playing future until the summer. Yeah, he’s going back to Russia to play in the KHL, isn’t he? If this is possibly it, Ovechkin’s has had one hell of a NHL run. Unsurprisingly, he’s dominated the Leafs. In 63 career regular season outings against Toronto, the 40-year-old has notched 45 goals and 80 points —adding three more goals in their 2017 playoff matchup. Yeah, he’s done a few things. It’s too bad Auston Matthews is injured. It would’ve been nice to see Ovechkin and Matthews go toe-to-toe one final time.
After that, Don Granato stopped by to break down his upcoming role coaching Team USA at the Men’s World Championship, offering insight into how the opportunity came together and what goes into the player selection process. From there, the conversation shifted to the Maple Leafs, with Granato weighing in on Toronto’s American talent — including Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz as potential Team USA options — while also sharing his view on how the organization is perceived around the league. He also touched on what would intrigue him about a role in Toronto and wrapped things up by saying he’d like to see the Leafs play a more exciting, up-tempo style.
Plenty ahead on the Thursday edition of Leafs Morning Take. We’ll recap Leafs/Caps, plus preview Toronto’s visit to Long Island on the back-to-back. Also, former Leaf and TSN Hockey Analyst Mike Johnson is expected to drop by the show once again.