My gut feeling is they had their timeline in place. Their homegrown #1 overall pick who's shown great strides in his game over the first three years was set to be announced as the next captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Then two items: firstly if the events did indeed unfold as reported, a huge embarrassment for the team and the face of the franchise, literally caught with his pants down (the disappointment). Secondly, management were completely blind-sided by this stuff just days before the start of the season (the fury). I think those two combined cause a complete reset: Big Three get no letters, mandate is just go score goals and set up plays. JT (captain elsewhere, total package, here for 6 years) is anointed, or Mo (drafted and homegrown, already a veteran and well respected). I'm leaning towards the former rather than the latter, simply because of history and he's locked in twice as long.