How long do you think Ron Wilson will last in Toronto before he's fired?

Question

I'll give him a couple years. He hates the Canadian media and after the Leafs miss the playoffs two more years in a row he'll be out the door. Your thoughts?

Answer 1

What's this you say.... Toronto has a pro team??

Answer 2

A couple years

Answer 3

Ron won't be fired, Leafs and Wings Western finals.

Answer 4

Well it is not his fault that MLSE made some really pi$s poor decisions that have and will s***w the Leafs for even more seasons. He is coming in with a metric tonne of coaching experience and hockey knowledge. Hopefully that is enough to break the Leafs out of the rut they are in with the players they are stuck with. I guess we will all find out in 4-6 months eh?

Answer 5

4 years.

1st year - forgiveable, given what they have.

2nd year - He will use the "i'm trying to get MY type of players excuse"

3rd year - The fans are restless and the media is killing him.

4th year - He is miserable, the fans hate him, the players won't play for him.  

Bonus - Vesa, whom having played for him in SJ and finding out he agreed to coach Toronto said, "Oh $hiT, not again!"

Answer 6

a year, no matter what the leafs are gonna suck, they have a young team so its gonna be a struggle, but they always have to blame somebody, so poor ronny will thrown in the trash

Answer 7

I'm wondering how many times that clip of him ripping on TSN will get shown this week.

Whoever the Leafs hire needs to be someone that can handle a media that can be just a wee tad critical.

Wilson never had the scrutiny in Washington or San Jose that he'll have in Toronto; you're talking local dailies, national dailies, and anything the Leafs do is pretty much front page news in Canada.  My question is how exactly is he equipped for this?  I mean, what's he going to think when he gets ripped after they drop a couple preseason games?  

I thought San Jose was a good fit for him; as for the Leafs job, I'd have preferred a Canadian (mostly because I think an American/European can't comprehend the pressure that exists in coaching the Leafs).  

My glimmer of hope is that Wilson seemed to work pretty well with the Sharks' young players.  Given that the Leafs may be going this route, you have to hope that this was the thinking.

Answer 8

Or a better question, How long do you think Ron Wilson will last in Toronto before Maple Leafs' fans and the Canadian media call for the firing of Wilson?

I'd give it to Christmas, and that's being generous.

Answer 9

I will give it Rememberance Day (or Veteran's Day for those in the States)

Answer 10

Ron and Toronto will surprise you all. The media do not expect anything from Wilson and the Nation are waiting for the Messiah to lead them out of the wilderness.

He is in the enviable position that whatever he does it is going to be accepted. If he finishes last the cheers will be raised because he has put Toronto in line for the Tavares sweepstake. If he doesn't make the playoffs it will be that is what we expect because he has no players. If he makes the playoffs he will be the second coming of Annie Sullivan (Helen Keller's teacher) a true miracle worker. If they contend ecstasy will reign.

Toronto will not force Wilson out. If he can't stand the heat he'd better get out of the kitchen.

There aren't many cities where the coach has a news conference every day that is attended by twenty or thirty reporters. Farhan Lalji has promised to take it easy on him for a while. But whether we can say the same for Duhatchek or LeBrun. We'll watch. Paul was excellent with the press I only hope that Ron is a patient.

Answer 11

Leafsfan29

Ron Wilson will easily handle the Toronto media, I'm not sure the Toronto media will be able to handle him.

He's a dual citizen (He never resigned his Canadian citizenship when becoming an American citizen).  He knows the hockey situation in Toronto having been through it (and the media acted the same way towards the Leafs in the 70s when Wilson played for them as they do now.  Wilson himself took a lot of flack from the media because he wore Keon's old number).

Wilson is a great coach.  He's had 1 losing season in the last 11 years and the three years before that he was coaching an expansion team

- he has more playoff wins than John Tortorella, Marc Crawford and Bob Hartley

- he has been to more Stanley Cup finals than Joel Quenneville

- he has a similar wining percentage to Pat Quinn, Pat Burns, and better than Quenneville, Hartley, and Tortorella

He was one of the highest profile coaches available

He had one of the best resumes available of the pool of candidates that Fletcher was looking for (minimum 150 NHL games coached including at least 10 playoff wins)

He is a buddy of Brian Burke (the real fish the Leafs want to catch).

The only question that remains to be seen is whether or not he will have the players necessary to put a winning team together.