At one side of the stick JFJ inherited a crap pile when it comes to the leafs, he had one season and then a cap was put in place, a cap which the prior season's leaf's had doubled int he season prior to the cap. He wasn't able to go out, like GMs of the past and pick up big name guys.
On the other side Fergie has tied down a lot of money for a long period of time to players that may not need it. I still defend the McCabe signing and feel his contract is market value when in comparison to Souray and Jovo, but players like Kubinia seem to have been excessive and really seemed to hurt his already threatening cap problems.
Also when considering what he has let go I almost question his reasoning, I am still in the Lindros camp and think that he was the character guy who allowed Sundin some breathing room, but in his absence nobody seems to have stepped up. With all that said under Fergie we has 4-5 different young guys cracking the top two lines defensively and offensively and we have players such as Stajan, Antropov and Poni who have come out of the woodwork and are finally living to their potential. Finally you look, not at the major signings, but the minor ones that Fergie has pulled off and some of them have been quite impressive. Bates Battiglia, or Boyd Deauveax (sp?) come to mind. I think Quinn picked Kilger up off waivers from Montreal, but Fergie has definitely identified his importance to the success of this franchise. Bottom line though is Fergie is well on his way to making Maple Leaf history, in the bad way (and in this franchise it is hard o make significant additions to the negative history), and with all the pluses he hasn't been able to get it done, and if he lasts to the end of the season and the leafs are on the outside again, he is gone or at least he should be.
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