Would you ever have imagined Toronto not being a desirable destination for players?

BY MARK SPECTOR
sportsnet.ca

RALEIGH, N.C. — There are certain lists the Toronto Maple Leafs just aren’t supposed to be on.

The coach that nearly a quarter of National Hockey League players loathe to play for is one of them.

The fact that Toronto head coach Ron Wilson is that man in an NHLPA poll released Sunday does not reflect heavily on the organization.

Remember plenty of players also hated playing for Scotty Bowman, until the Stanley Cup rings arrived.

Another list is Phil Kessel being picked last on Friday night.

The only meaningful element to that is how his fellow players threw him under the bus. Pick any guy from any American team last and that story has one-tenth the legs it did with Kessel.

And what about the collective player response to the poll question: What team would you least like to play on?

This is a list that has never included the Toronto Maple Leafs before. No franchise with the might, the history and the relevance of the Toronto Maple Leafs should be on that list.

But there they were, in fourth place on The List of Shame that came out Sunday morning in Raleigh.

"I know why," said retired Carolina Hurricane warrior Rod Brind’Amour, who played more than 1,650 NHL games, playoffs included. "Guys who play there, there is tremendous pressure."

There is tremendous pressure in Vancouver as well.

Yet the Canucks were the second most favoured franchise in the league behind Detroit.

On the List of Shame, the New York Islanders were first at 27 per cent.

They’re a last place team whose arena is a dump and the organization is a mess.

Edmonton was next, getting 20 per cent of the players’ votes.

We get that too.

They’re on Floor 1 of a rebuild, in the coldest city with the longest winters in the league.

The old saying happy wife, happy life puts Edmonton on this list every year.

Then there was Atlanta at seven per cent and Toronto five per cent, making the Maple Leafs the 27th most desirable destination among NHL players.

So, what does that mean?

And how did that happen?

"Maybe it’s because Toronto hasn’t won in forever," Brind’Amour said. "You can’t go anywhere in that town when you’re losing. You don’t have a life. When you don’t win, it’s real tough there."

"Win for a while and do that poll the next year. I bet it comes out different."

Sage words by a veteran who knows, to be sure.

As great a town as Toronto would be to win in, it’s every bit that miserable when you’re missing the playoffs for the sixth season, with no end in sight.

What happened to that big group of Ontario-born NHLers who wanted to come home and play for the team they grew up watching?

And didn’t the lure of hockey’s most vibrant market always make Toronto a special place, no matter what year the playoff drought was at?

Then again, perhaps the fact that Wilson was voted the most unpopular head coach in hockey has de-valued Toronto as a destination for players.

Or is that balanced out by the fact GM Brian Burke is one of the most player-friendly GMs in the game?

"You know," said Brind’Amour, who never played for Wilson, "you sign a deal with your GM, and then you don’t see him much. I don’t know if there’s a correlation there. The coach? You’re with him every day."

What are the repercussions of this poll?

We know for sure that the other teams on the list — Edmonton, the Islanders, Atlanta, a team like Columbus — have to pay more to get free agents to join them.

No UFA wants to walk in to a rebuild like Edmonton or a constant loser like Columbus — it’s the one chance they have to select a team that might put a ring on their finger one day soon.

Does this mean Burke will have a harder time getting a Jonas Gustavsson or a Tyler Bozak, two un drafted free agents won over by Burke?

We know for certain that Burke’s blueprints include landing free agent players.

If that is getting harder, the Leafs could be caught in a vicious cycle.

You’re counting on free agents to help turn around a losing program, but you can’t get any of them because you’re a losing program.

And you can’t turn into a winning program, because you can’t get any free agents.

Then again, maybe it’s just a stupid poll and perhaps it means nothing.

Somehow it meant nothing a little bit more when there were other teams on that list and not Toronto.