Is Darcy Tucker the biggest bust ever? Maple Leafs Drop Tucker take loss.?

Question

Is he the biggest bust of all time? Ferguson signed him and McCabe, thank god he got fired! Good riddance Tucker, you whiner/loser, AHL skills. McCabe is now refusing his trade. Who would want him...and Sundin, refusing the trade. What a way to s***w the Leafs- they could have got some talent for him. The leafs are starting to make some good moves, cleaning house. By Darcy! you suck. What is your opinion?

Answer 1

Darcy Tucker struggled mightily this season, finishing with just 18 goals and 16 assists in 74 games - down from 24 goals and 19 assists in just 56 games a year ago.

"It's a business, Darcy knows that," Tucker's agent Carlos Sosa told TSN

"Whether this decision by the Maple Leafs is good business or bad business.

Only time will tell."

Darcy Tucker did not choose to leave, it was Fletcher's decision.

Answer 2

It sounds like you've been watching hockey for about one season if you think Tucker is the biggest bust of all time.

Tucker had one bad year with the leafs after many good ones, four of which he scored between 20-30 goals. He looked like he was beat up with injuries last year.  

At the time of McCabe's contract, fans and newspapers were screaming at Ferguson for weeks to sign him in a hurry because negotiations were taking so long and it looked like he might to to the Islanders.

The Leafs screwed themselves, not the players who don't want to be traded. Those no-trade clauses were negotiated as part of their contracts ... in Sundin's case he took about $2million less in salary than 30 other teams would have paid him in return for a promise of security with the Leafs. Only a moron would suggest Sundin give up that no contract clause after donating that much cash to the team. Why should he have to pay because the idiots who run the team haven't had the brains to put a decent team together over the past decade?

What good moves have the Leafs made? Anyone off the street playing GM could walk in and buy players out without having anyone to replace them. Cleaning house is one thing. Filling it up with players who are better is going to be almost impossible this summer.

Katie: If the Leafs start sending players down to the minors because they think they've paid them too much (which I'm sure the players union would challenge), who in the league would want to go and play for Toronto? Who would risk their career by playing for the Leafs?

Answer 3

he just got paid too much. Daigle and Falloon were much bigger busts

Answer 4

Daigle and Falloon were way bigger busts.    Tucker is not even close to those two.

Answer 5

Well I'm no fan of Tucker's antics or of the TML, but you really need to get over your bitterness here.  

Biggest bust ever?  No, his name is Alexander Daigle.

AHL skills?  Good thing your not a scout or anything.

And what's with all the hate for the players that bargained no trade/movement clauses into their contracts using them?  It's not their fault that the team agreed to these clauses and they are well within their rights to invoke them.

Answer 6

Last Contract year there were 75 players in the NHL with No Trade Contracts. Can any one name three who weren't Leafs? But everyone can name the 5 Leafs.

There is a good reason for a player to ask for a no trade contract in his negotiations. It gives him and his family some degree of security in a world that can be unsettling at the best of times.

There is an excellent reason for a team to offer it to a player in these times of salary caps and high spending. Players will take a lower dollar value rather than risk the chance of being traded at the whim of the team and the management.

Sundin signed a one year $5.5M NTC contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs last year. His market value at the time was about $8M for 3 years. This left Toronto with a lot of cap room to do something with They didn't.

McCabe had just completed a season where his stats were better than every other defenceman in the league except for Lidstrom. He could demand a contract of $8M for five years. He took a front loaded contract with NTC provisions. the same as all the other top D men in the league at the time.



Tucker's contract was not a bad contract for his worth. It also included an NTC because after 6 years as a good team player he was worth it.

When the Leafs fired their GM and brought in a savior with the plan to fix what was wrong. He couldn't fire his boss so he proceded to fire his team. Five of these players had the foresight to get no trade contracts. Three of them were having bad years but still were in the top 30% of the league. Trades were attempted but they were advised to hold to the provisiions of their contract. They did nothing wrong. The contracts were viewed as good deals by the media at the time. With the exception of McCabe's high front end. Nobody complained when the rest of the team didn't deliver.

Darcy is not the biggest bust ever.

There are a lot of players in this league making more money and giving less than these guys. The difference is that they had the nerve to do it in Toronto.

In it's history Toronto has had the worst owner in the history of the NHL (and it's not the Teachers), the worst team president (might be the present one), the worst General Manager (and it wasn't JFJ), the worst Coach (and it wasn't Maurice) and they still survived.

Their worst players weren't Tucker and McCabe. They don't even come close. Sundin wasn't their worst Captain and this latest crop of players are neither the worst skill wise nor most selfish. Toronto hasn't finished in last place in the NHL since their only time in 1958.  So the gloom and doom that seems to surround us is short lived and unfounded.

Unfortunately Darcy was a visible and noticable scape goat. I

BTW now that Kubina can be traded Fletcher says he won't do it. So maybe this was a tempest in a tea pot.

Answer 7

Based on the contract offers going through the NHLPA, Darcy Tucker will end up on a very good team next year making as much money as he made this past year.  

He is very much in demand.

It's a good thing you aren't running the Detroit Red Wings because they think Tucker would be great on their team, and you think he's an AHL player...............I'm going with Devellano and Holland on this one.

Answer 8

Tucker had some good years. Don't blame him because the Leafs can't separate his popularity (at the time) from his ability.

He is what he is: a rough-and-tumble third liner.

Answer 9

i think with mccabe, they will throw down to the marlies if he doesnt wave his no trade.  they want him out that bad.

Answer 10

i think there are bigger bust than tucker in the history of the NHL but ferguson worst bust when he was GM was trading a top prospect for Raycroft

Answer 11

I have no clue on how you can call Darcy Tucker a bust. He had five 20 goal seasons and in a league with scoring down he managed 18 in a "terrible" year. I did wish he would have waived his no-movement clause so that Toronto could trade him (he has value).

Daigle, Brian Lawton were busts..Heck I would argue that Eric Lindros was one of the biggest busts ever.

As for s******g the Leafs...Tucker, McCabe, Sundin have no reason to leave unless they choose too, ,which they should , but not because management wants them to but because the Leafs are going to suck and go for last place the next few years.

Answer 12

Tucker will perform much better away from a dysfunctional organization!

Losers breed losers... and right now thats what Toronto has bred. He will be fine in a new uniform and a new lease on life. He will have the last laugh when the LEAFS are still paying him in 3 years and he is on a winning team and the LEAFS are still cellar dwellers.

Answer 13

How's he a bust? He's had some very good years with the club and had just two bad ones.