David Shoalts of the Globe and Mail wrote an article earlier this week stating that Scotty Bowman had been offered the job as president of the Toronto Maple Leafs and that he had a week to make his decision. Bowman emailed TSN and contacted David saying that this, in fact, was not true and he has no such offer on the table. David went on “The Fan” (a Toronto radio show) to explain his story and sources. I won’t get into the Bowman story here, but David says that if Bowman does get the position, he’d be interested in taking Steve Yzerman on board as the GM.

Shoalts: Well, they talked about having, as assistant coaches, coming in, people like Craig Ramsay [who has since been hired by the Boston Bruins] and Igor Larionov, um…As a head coach, it was pretty vague, it was funny, but, you know…He’s also close to, he had a really good relationship with Steve Yzerman, when Yzerman played for him in Detroit. Yzerman would like to be a GM, but he’s always said, you know, he’s not interested in pushing aside Ken Holland, who’s not going anywhere, I don’t think, in Detroit, and Ken has a natural successor behind him in Jim Nill, who’s a very good hockey man…

So, this would seem, to me, pretty intriguing for a lot of people, and there are a lot of people around the league who would be dying to work for Scotty Bowman, in fact, one guy I talked to the weekend specifically said, “I hope he gets the job, I hope it happens, because I’d love to work for him.”

Thanks to George @ Snapshots for the transcript of the interview. Personally, I think Bowman is too old for this kind of position and he doesn’t want all that stress (he turns 74 this year). Plus, it would really surprise me to see Yzerman leave Detroit, especially this soon for a GM position. He is enjoying the role he currently has and the city of Detroit loves him. Why would he leave for the Maple Leafs?