Bowman still interested in Leafs job despite being snubbed in summer
Sean Fitz-Gerald, National Post
Published: Sunday, January 13, 2008TORONTO - National Hockey League coaching legend Scotty Bowman was "getting very interested" in an executive role with the Toronto Maple Leafs last summer, and he has suggested to a television interviewer that his interest remains, even though the franchise's upper management turned him away.
Bowman met with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment chairman Larry Tanenbaum before the season, and spoke with president Richard Peddie a few days later.
On Saturday night, the 74-year-old told Hockey Night in Canada he was looking for a position with the kind of autonomy MLSE afforded Toronto Raptors president Bryan Colangelo to control the team's basketball operations.
"I met most of the board members," Bowman told HNIC. "I gave my resume of what I thought I could do. I told them what I felt the blueprint would be, taking what I had done in Detroit and the other cities. I don't know what happened between the time I left Larry Tanenbaum's office and the time I talked with Richard Peddie."
Peddie declined to elaborate when reached on Sunday.
"We did talk to Scotty," he said. "Scotty chose to share confidential discussions, and that was his call."
Bowman has been working as a consultant with the Detroit Red Wings and said he speaks with coach Mike Babcock on a daily basis. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame 17 years ago after guiding Montreal, Pittsburgh and Detroit to a combined nine Stanley Cup titles.
"I had a very strong meeting with Larry Tanenbaum one day in mid-August, and I was getting very interested," Bowman told HNiC. "And then he said, of course, he wanted me to meet Richard Peddie, which I did. I met Richard for an hour a week later, and then he said he would call me."
He said Peddie called him twice. Bowman said the first call was to say there was nothing to report, and it was followed by another call, a few days later.
"He said, 'The season is about three weeks away, there's a lot of training camp games coming up,' " Bowman told HNIC. "And then he said, 'We've decided to go with what we have.' "
Bowman suggested money had not been an issue in the talks, with speculation his price tag would be somewhere around $3 million US a year. He also told the CBC program he would not ignore the Leafs if they again came knocking at his door.
"That's a pretty tough question to answer right now, because you're asking something that's real hypothetical," he told HNIC. "It would be awful tough to leave Detroit right now, naturally. That's my loyalty and that's who I want to win with. We'd cross that bridge if it ever came to it, though."
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