DEVELOPING: Something Is Happening With Dave Morrison

According to Sportsnet Magazine’s Gare Joyce, the Toronto Maple Leafs have made their first personnel decision of the Lou Lamoriello era, firing Director of Amateur Scouting Dave Morrison may or may not be doing something with Dave Morrison. 

The move comes as a bit of a shocker. Morrison had survived the big staff exodus of April 2015 (to the point of being given a vote of confidence), and had input in what is initially being praised as a successful entry draft last month. Even if they had held on to him to avoid loss of “company secrets” in before the draft, taking nearly a month to get rid of him afterwards is a bit curious.

The initial spectuation? Lamoriello wants to bring in some of his staff. It wouldn’t be much of a surprise to see David Conte come in as a successor. Conte was New Jersey’s Director of Scouting from August 5th, 1993 until July 9th of this year, when the Devils decided to part ways with him. He was also the Vice President of Hockey Operations for the past nine years.

Conte’s draft history with the Devils includes the likes of Jay Pandolfo and Brendan Morrison (93), Patrik Elias and Steve Sullivan (94), Petr Sykora (95), Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta (98), Paul Martin (00), Zach Parise (03), and Travis Zajac (04). While many of these players hit their stride with the Devils organization and became valuable contributors, it’s been eleven years since a Devils draft pick has played 350+ NHL games.

Morrison was originally hired by the Leafs in 2004, and had been the Director of Amateur Scoting for the past six years.

Anthony Petrelli of Maple Leafs Hot Stove has now put a plot twist on this story with the following:

Joyce did make a point to say that Morrison had not been notified yet, but with so much time in between the initial circulation of the story and Petrelli’s refute, it’s really anybody’s guess as to what’s happening. We’ll update you with more as this develops.

Joyce is stepping back from his original statement of Morrison being let go, and is now suggesting that it might be a shuffling of the deck chairs. Joyce mentions in a follow-up that Toronto has interviewed other scouts in the immediate past for available spots.