Cliff Fletcher – leaf blower or garden rake?

All the internal strife, poor play and disorganization at the Maple Leaf organization has become headline news in the sports world. Now that the decision has been made – Ferguson out, Fletcher in – the focus has turned to one simple question: What next?

Will Fletcher be a leaf blower at MLSE and trade off high profile players, or will he be a garden rake and bring together the leafs he already has? Could Mats Sundin, the face of the Maple Leaf organization, be traded away to be a Stanley Cup rental player? The speculation about the future is the most damaging aspect of the soap opera situation. Many in the media have looked beyond the recent wins for the Leafs, and instead write more stories about what options Fletcher has.

The Maple Leaf hockey team is now a sideshow to the Maple Leaf administration. Fletcher tried to quell the fire in a recent Canadian Press article by saying “I’m going to meet internally with the coaches, the management group and the scouts, and get their opinion on how they see the team playing, where they see it can progress to, rate all the players in terms of value, and eventually come up with a consensus and a plan in how we’re going to attempt to move forward.”

Logical and thorough, but his comments leave fans and media wondering who will be rated poorly? Who will they lose, or not be able to lose? Is anyone even interested in Jason Blake, Bryan McCabe or Pavel Kubina? The Leafs have big name, big salary players without the stats to make them appealing.

The Leafs need to develop some strong key messages to demonstrate a united, professional and committed organization. Although the decision is going to be difficult, Fletcher needs to say what he is going to do. The decision has to be clear, so the Leafs can start rebuilding their credibility as a sporting organization.

If I were in the shoes of PR staff at MLSE my focus would be making the team the core to media coverage, not the administration. Stress the wins when they happen, the community involvement and re-brand the team. Sundin will be the face of the organization as long as he is in Toronto, but younger players such as Matt Stajan and Alex Steen need to slowly be worked into Sundin’s role. After years of transactions that have seen older players such as Ed Belfour, the Leafs need to be re-branded as a team with a strong core of young players to build a team around.

All eyes are going to be on Fletcher, but the PR staff can develop new strategies to lessen the speculation and maintain the image of a team steeped in history.