The franchise may be driving in reverse again, but Ron Wilson is capable of steering the Leafs in the right direction.
The Theory du Jour is that because Ron Wilson is a good and long-time friend of Anaheim Ducks general manager Brian Burke, Burke will eventually follow Wilson into Toronto.
My response to that begins with bull.
That's not to say it can't happen and I might argue that it could and maybe should. I would also suggest that the hiring of Wilson is a part of the overall plan to bring Burke to Toronto at some point. It's difficult to the point of absurd to think the Leafs would hire a coach ahead of a GM who didn't at least have an understanding of what the possible future GM likes, dislikes and can work with.
Wilson fits most of the criteria for a good match with Burke, but should that not come to pass he also has to be a good fit for the Leafs on his own.
Based on his record and based on his performance Tuesday at his introductory press conference in the Air Canada Centre, Wilson fits.
I'm not prepared to say he was the best hire available. Joel Quenneville and especially John Tortorella should have been considered and you could make a case that Bob Hartley could do the job as well. Given that Hartley and Tortorella have Cup-winning teams in their recent past, you can make an argument that interim general manager Cliff Fletcher did less than a thorough job in terms of interviewing all of the qualified candidates. Should Burke not come to Toronto, that Fletcher didn't do the in-depth work the franchise needed and its fans deserved could come back to haunt him.
And despite Wilson assertions to the contrary, that will matter simply because even if Burke isn't the next GM of the Leafs, neither is Fletcher -- not long-term at least -- and so the question of whether Wilson is here for the long-term, no matter the length of his contract, will be an issue when a more permanent GM is in place.
That's the downside of doing things backward and though that likely was not Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment's intent, that's exactly what the folks there have done.
When you build a car -- at least a quality car -- you don't build it with parts off shelves from different manufacturers. You build it with the parts your team has designed and/or built and then have had it assembled by the team of workers you've put together knowing that the plan, the design, the manufacturing and the assembly is under the control of that group.
Successful hockey organizations follow the same model.
The Leafs, of course, haven't done that, not even close. They seem more inclined to order off a Chinese restaurant menu looking for something in a coach from Column A and something along the lines of a possible asset to the hockey department from Column B (anyone seen Dave Nonis lately?). In doing that their approach is already fraught with problems, any one of which could set the whole "we're going to do it right and be great" plan into a mess that would rival a 45-car pileup on the QEW.
But in hiring Wilson, they could also get lucky. After all, it's not as if the guy can't coach. He can and he will. It's also not as if he's unqualified to start the process of handling a team that is mostly old, mostly slow and largely devoid of both talent and desire.
What Wilson is perhaps best at is handling that kind of team. He has a reputation as a teacher's coach; a coach who can take what he has and make the best of it while at the same time overseeing its rebuilding process en route to making it better.
Using the car analogy again, Wilson is quite good at taking an old clunker and rebuilding it to the point where it is at least respectable and serviceable; the kind of car that can get you through the winter while you're waiting for the new model that comes in the spring.
He did that, to a degree at least, in Washington and he did it with even greater success in Anaheim. Though he didn't win a Cup with his best team, the most recent editions of the San Jose Sharks, he helped build them into a very good team, a team that was fun to watch, competed hard and with a break or two in this spring's playoffs might well have had a dance with Lord Stanley in June.
In short, he's a career coach with a good to almost great record and (putting aside his penchant for picking fights with media members over issues that simply don't matter) a talent for making something decent out of something much worse.
How that plays in Leafsland is yet to be determined. Tuesday, Wilson preached patience and fun, hockey buzz words for not being able or willing to state that the job will be long, hard and at times frustrating.
If Wilson, Leafs fans and Leafs media can all get on the same page for a while, it could work. It could work even if Burke remains as distant as Dave Keon, but if the coach resorts to his sometime snarly ways or if the fans start demanding results that simply aren't possible or if the media start throwing the "Where's the Cup" question long before its fair or even logical to do so, it could also all fall apart faster than a Yugo on the 401.
That's the chance Cliff Fletcher and the Maple Leafs bosses have taken in hiring Ron Wilson for the Toronto market.
Burke or no Burke, the success or failure of this move is all on him.
