43 Years of Maple Leaf Frustration: 1982-83 Season

In Gerry McNamara's full season in charge of the team one would have thought he would use the opportunity to rebuild not just the hockey team but the hockey operations.  The Leafs at the time only had 3 full time scouts (Johnny Bower, Dick Duff and Floyd Smith) while most teams had at least 10.  Coach Mike Nykoluk only had one assistant while other head coaches had several assistants. Doug Carpenter who had a very successful career as a junior coach at Cornwall was coaching the Leafs' AHL affliate (St. Catherines Saints) but was not brought back in 1982.  He would have been an excellent replacement for Nykoluk but McNamara decided to replace Carpenter with ex-teammate Claire Alexander. Even the Saints were a disaster.  To save money McNamara didn't sign their top two scorers from the previous season, Bruce Boudreau and Mike Kasycki, which further weakened the Leafs' depth.

The 1982-83 season featured the short career of Paul Higgins.  Higgins played with McNamara's son at Henry Carr and was signed by the Toronto Marlies.  He was continually getting into fights and in trouble with the law.  He even got into a fight in a softball game during the offseason. The Marlies eventually traded him to Kitchener and drove him to his new team to make sure he got out of town.  None of this mattered to McNamara who had the Leafs draft him in 1980 (10th round) and employ him as a goon.
The Leafs did not send scouts to the World Championships because Harold Ballard refused to sign Europeans. So the team that opened to door to Europeans by signing Borje Salming was now ignoring that continent. Meanwhile the rest of the NHL was going European (Jarri Kurri in Edmonton, Kent Nilsson in Calgary, Peter Stasny in Quebec).

Rick Vaive registered a second 50-goal season but that was really the only bright spot. Despite a terrible 28-40-12 record the Maple Leafs make the playoffs by finishing in 3rd place in the Norris Division. However the weak Leafs are quickly exposed as they are knocked off in 4 games of a best of 5 by the Minnesota North Stars.  A total of 46 players dressed for the Leafs that season.