How have you changed and what have you learned from your mistakes from your time in Arizona?<\/p>\n
\u201cI was incredibly young when hired by the Coyotes. The issues and problems there were significantly different than this situation here, which is a good problem to have, honestly. I’d say the biggest change for me is to have a partner like Mats that not only had the playing career he did and success he did, but also just his knowledge of the Toronto Maple Leafs — the market, the media, being in the dressing room, players’ perspective, facilities, team dynamics. I think having that partner that you bounce ideas off of, to say, \u2018Hey, I’m thinking about it this way, or I’m thinking about that way,\u2019 and he gives you honest candid feedback is, for me, it’s an incredible asset. And as I think about going into Arizona and a lot of moving parts, a lot of noise, a lot of things going on, and trying to build a team versus, you know, this, it’s just a bunch different set of circumstances. I\u2019ve grown. I have a family now. You learn, you grow.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a lot of white noise and mixed reaction in this market when you were hired, including at your introductory press conference. How did and do you block that out?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not super reflective on any of that. Like, it’s not about me; it’s about the Toronto Maple Leafs, it’s about the team. There is a lot of white noise, no doubt. I mean, if there wasn’t the white noise, there wouldn’t be the fan passion, the fan love, affinity for the brand and the team and the logo and the crest and the importance of every game. I welcome all of that. Like, that’s what I’m here for. If I didn’t want that, I wouldn’t do this. The other part, I have an amazing family, amazing wife, three kids. There’s nothing about me that’s looking for any external validation. I’m not looking for anyone saying, \u2018that\u2019s a good move, a bad move.\u2019 We\u2019re going to do what\u2019s best for the organization as much as we can, and the results are the results. That\u2019s pro sports. So, for me honestly, it hasn\u2019t entered my thought process at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
You mentioned Auston Matthews earlier. Any thoughts of locking him up long-term down the road, or is it a bit early in your tenure for that?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have, what, 10 months for that? And a lot can happen in 10 months (laughs). Let\u2019s get through our first regular-season game. Now, having said that, we have a great relationship with Auston. We have a great relationship with Judd (Moldaver), his representative. I know (Auston\u2019s) family a bit from being around Arizona, so there\u2019s a lot of shared interest. Right now, let\u2019s deal with the business of winning. When it\u2019s time for business, we\u2019ll deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How have you changed and what have you learned from your mistakes from your time in Arizona? \u201cI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-847291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}