SIMMONS SAYS: Vegas’ success shows why Leafs wanted Kelly McCrimmon so badly

When Brendan Shanahan was hired to run the Maple Leafs 10 years ago, he made a determination to reach out to the “smartest” people in junior hockey to begin building his organization. It wasn’t the usual approach to front-office recruiting in the NHL. He reached out to Kyle Dubas in Sault Ste. Marie and hired him in 2014. He identified Mark Hunter in London and hired him three months later. Twice, he tried to hire Kelly McCrimmon from the Brandon Wheat Kings — once by himself, and once with Lou Lamoriello involved — but both times he came up empty. What a swing and a miss that turned out to be long-term for the Leafs. After an unhappy ending in Toronto, Hunter has returned happily to London and the junior dynasty that is the Knights. Dubas, who was the chosen one as general manager, is about to miss the playoffs in his first season running the Pittsburgh Penguins. McCrimmon is the Bill Torrey-Glen Sather-Harry Sinden of his day, the smartest, brightest, most accomplished, GM in all of hockey with the Vegas Golden Knights and he seems to be proving that year after year. Vegas is the defending Stanley Cup champion. It won last year’s trade deadline, bringing in Ivan Barbashev for somebody named Zach Dean. It won the summer trade market in 2022, sending a fourth-round pick to San Jose for goaltender Adin Hill. Last season, McCrimmon traded for Jack Eichel, who had lost his way in Buffalo. In recent days, all McCrimmon and his staff did was manage to acquire the best scorer available, Tomas Hertl, the best defenceman available, Noah Hanifin, and a solid depth scorer in Anthony Mantha. All of this coming after the Cup win last year, the brilliant work prior to putting the Vegas expansion team on the map, the free-agent signing of big-time defenceman Alex Pietrangelo, the trading for captain Mark Stone. The work that elevated McCrimmon to general manager has become the envy of everyone in hockey, with an owner in Bill Foley, who pushes winning over all else. Years ago, through the help of Dave Branch and others in junior hockey, Shanahan identified the right people for the building Maple Leafs front office. He just came up short on hiring the smartest of them all. THIS AND THAT I have a list of nine teams that can win the Stanley Cup. The number goes to 10 if you include the Winnipeg Jets. In my order, the Stanley Cup will be won by one of the Florida Panthers, Colorado Avalanche, Carolina Hurricanes;, Dallas Stars,; Vancouver Canucks, Vegas, Edmonton Oilers, Boston Bruins and New York Rangers. Then Winnipeg. Then Tampa Bay. That’s 11. That puts the Leafs at No. 12 among Stanley Cup contenders. And the reason I rank Tampa ahead of Toronto, despite the standings: They still have Andrei Vasilevskiy in goal, Victor Hedman on defence, big gamer Nikita Kucherov up front and Jon Cooper coaching. By comparison, the Leafs have I don’t know in goal, Morgan Rielly as their best defenceman, Auston Matthews up front (most playoff goals in a season, five) and Sheldon Keefe coaching … Shanahan likes to say he wants to be one of the “eight or so” teams that make the playoffs with a shot at winning the Cup. This season, they will make the playoffs … A former accomplished GM on the Leafs: “I don’t see how you can win long-term in the playoffs with that defence and that goaltending. Too much guessing, I think.” … Playoff teams that can’t win the Cup: Nashville, Detroit, Philadelphia and Los Angeles … A suggestion if the Leafs don’t get out of the first round again. How about a trade of coaches? Mike Sullivan to Toropnto and Keefe to Pittsburgh. Dubas would like that … Not sure where the Sidney Crosby almost frozen, emotional reaction to Jake Guentzel getting traded came from. Crosby has had an incredible season. The Penguins have not. It was obvious for months that Pittsburgh was trading Guentzel. It’s now pretty much obvious that the Penguins won’t be in the post-season. Maybe reality just caught up with Crosby, as athletes tend to be the last people to often live in the real world … Fascinating pickup by Carolina at the deadline: When Washington won the Stanley Cup in 2018, Evgeny Kuznetsov should have won the Conn Smythe Trophy. He outscored Alex Ovechkin 18-12 in the final two rounds. If Kuznetsov is mentally and physically all right at age 31, what a pickup this could be for the Hurricanes. He had 78 points as recently as 2022. HEAR AND THERE In playing head-to-head this season, Matthews has been outscored, points wise, by Hart Trophy contenders David Pastrnak, Nathan MacKinnon, Quinn Hughes and Kucherov … A view that confuses me: If Matthews scores 70, he has to win the Hart. What if he gets 69? What if he scores 68? How does that change your mind? … Kucherov has 41 more points than anyone else on Tampa. Pastrnak has 35 more than any other Bruin. MacKinnon has 27 more than Mikko Rantanen and 41 more than Cale Makar, yet Matthews has four fewer points than Leafs’ l...