The Toronto Maple Leafs signed current General Manager Dave Nonis today to a five year extension. Nonis, who was promoted to GM before the 2013 season when Brian Burke was relieved of his position, has previous NHL GM experience with the Vancouver Canucks and Anaheim Ducks. In his first season as GM of the Maple Leafs, the team still consisting largely of Burke players made the playoffs for the first time since the 2004-05 lockout.
The extension comes on the heels of some massive moves for the Maple Leafs. Nonis acquired goaltender Jonathan Bernier from the Los Angeles Kings before signing free agent David Clarkson. He also recently re-signed Tyler Bozak, Carl Gunnerson and Paul Ranger. The nature of these moves confirmed that the Maple Leafs consider themselves to be close to contending for a championship. It also comes as a surprise considering the small sample size Nonis has provided thus far.
Almost immediately after his extension Nonis will have to deal with the Maple Leafs’ cap situation which is looking increasingly unstable with only about 5 million dollars remaining to sign Nazim Kadri, Cody Franson and Mark Fraser. He will also be in charge of making sure his team live up to the hefty expectations set out by new MLSE president Tim Leiweke.
The financial terms of the deal were not discussed, but they hardly matter. Should he fail to make this team into a winner within the next couple of years he will be relieved of his position no matter what the company is paying him. For now, MLSE consider him to be the answer to the long-time problems that have plagued the Leafs on-ice product.
The move comes as a reflection of MLSE’s new mission statement surrounding the Leafs, which is essentially to make new history instead of constantly reminding its fan base of the late 1960s. Nonis has shown a willingness to make bold moves and acquire assets that the team believe will make last year’s success a more regular occurrence.
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