On the management dynamic under Shanahan:
It?s evolved through the year. I?ve been here since middle of July; Brandon Pridham came on a month later. Reid Mitchell has been here longer than anybody and he brings a lot of great value and experience to our staff as well. We had myself, Brendan, Dave, then we brought Mark Hunter in late October. Especially over the last few months, I?ve talked to Mark 2 or 3 times each day; we talk about players, we talk about trades, we talk about players we?ve seen for the draft. We talk about free agents and college and so on and so forth. We take that and present it formally to Dave and to Brendan, and now it?s to Brendan. The way it?s evolved in the last week is really a thee-way, four-way discussion about all different topics. It?s a really open dialogue; back and forth, agreeing/disagreeing, challenging one another. That?s been a lot of fun. That was the part I enjoyed most about being in Sault Ste. Marie, especially with Sheldon Keefe. He and I could disagree on a whole host of topics, as I could with all our staff there, whether it was Wes Clark or Victor Carneiro, it was never a groupthink, it was a lot of challenging and back and forth. I think, even here when you disagree, you know people aren?t disagreeing to be personal, they?re disagreeing to make sure we?re going to be right by the Toronto Maple Leafs. That?s been the most encouraging and fun part here, especially of late. When I say of late I go back to the trade deadline and the moves we made then, having everybody involved and full discussion with one another, having everybody ? even if they disagreed at first ? at least accepting and understanding why we were doing things.