Welp folks, I am slightly neurotic and it really bugs me when I have to think "Wait, what did Shanny say happened again?"
So voila:
The Timeline/Transcript
In the middle of March, I approached Kyle in his office and told him that I had seen enough in my mind that I wanted him to be the GM going forward, but that he should take some time to think about it and if he was comfortable with that idea, I would start talking to ownership about that. Kyle appreciated that - we had a good relationship the whole year, that day was nothing different. He came back to me about a week later and said yes, he was comfortable moving forward and he said his agent would reach out to me but he didn't want to be a distraction for him and I respected his wishes that I wouldn't talk about it *with him* any further at that point.
Fast forward the end of the regular season, the playoffs, I had many good conversations with Kyle's agent. I knew his agent was giving him updates...
I knew I was in a position to come to him with pretty much a finished deal that reflected what he wanted financially and what he wanted as a GM, what was important to him. It was very important to me when the season ended abruptly that I was ready to go, I approached Kyle that night and said as disappointed as we all were I thought he had done a good job.
- describes texting him through the Sunday, another conversation in his office presented him with a contract with a framework that reflected what his agent and I had talked about, in an effort to get this done as soon as possible. Kyle took it, seemed pleased to receive the news so quickly, talked about the team for another couple of hours. I expressed to him it was not my intention to talk to the media until I had something settled with him. Expressed that I thought it was a good idea if he didn't either but Kyle said he really wanted to talk to the media and I respected that. He felt his players were speaking and his coach was speaking and he should too.
Part of our conversation in my office, in fairness, was this was hard on his family. We talked about how quite frankly its hard on all our families, it's a difficult thing, it's hard on the players, the parents, but it's the job we choose it's the sport we choose, we're fortunate to be in it but it does not come without a toll on the families i completely acknowledge that, we talked a little bit about that.
The next day, I would say while watching Kyle's press, I think at that point there was a shift in my thinking that as Kyle expressed he might not want to be our GM and I have to take that very seriously. As I;d said to him the day before, I understood those feelings, that pressure that players management coaches family members are under but it was a very real possibility at that point that I would be needing to look somewhere else, and that is what I began to do while still hoping Kyle and I could come to some sort of resolution. What I would say then was in the next few days I didn't get anymore clarity. Wednesday we met privately and I had probably more questions than answers - I did not get clarity. It made me feel that there's a strong possibility that - it's anyone's right to do so - he might not want to be the General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs so my focus again continued to the path of what do we look like next year with a different GM?
On Thursday Kyle had said that his agent was going to call me and that he would reach out as well. The agent called me and a new financial package was presented. I did not hear from Kyle throughout the day and got an email after dinner from Kyle saying he did want to be the GM. At that point, if I'm being honest, I had gotten to a different place about how I felt about the future and what was best.
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Yeah, sorry, how the fuck did this get twisted into Shanny doing anything other than the reasonable thing?
