Toronto Maple Leafs Allegedly Blacklisted Key Player Signings, Per Insider
Playing for your childhood team is one of the greatest accomplishments for an NHL player, however according to one insider; the Leafs prevented that for him.
There's always something great about hearing of an NHL player being signed to their childhood team, and fulfilling a lifelong dream. John Tavares is a recent example of that exact scenario playing out.
However in years past, Toronto had a bit of a lull when it comes to hometown heroes, and now according to NHL Insider Anson Carter: It was by design.
Speaking with Leafs Morning Take, Carter, now an NHL analyst; spoke about the potential of him being signed to his hometown Maple Leafs and gave a striking bit of insight:
For years, the Maple Leafs did not want to have local guys play in Toronto. I think there was an internal fear that any success for a local kid who played for the Leafs, they would become bigger than their team.
It's why I commend guys like Mitch Marner who grew up being a Leafs fan and playing very well for the Leafs."
Toronto's Drastic Shift In Mentality Leads To Success
It's unsurprising that John Ferguson Jr. was behind this blacklisting as he was known to make a lot of controversial and quite frankly, bad moves over his tenure with Toronto.
This is the same GM who traded Tuukka Rask out of town, signed a 39-year old Ed Belfour to a three-year deal, and signed old veterans with name value who were way past their prime, or too injured like Ron Francis and Eric Lindros.
It shows the mentality shift between the mid-2000's Maple Leafs and the current iteration of the team.
Toronto isn't shy about adding the hometown kids to their team and have several in addition to Tavares and Marner; they also have Chris Tanev and Steven Lorentz.
The hesitation Toronto used to have left them in the dust a lot of the times, and while Carter wasn't a superstar; he was still a solid contributor offensively and defensively.
It's a good thing that Toronto shifted their vision from how they used to do business.
Who knows how much different the team would be and what direction they'd be going if they kept doing the same thing.
